R-0.65.1 for WinNT/9X

[Guido Masarotto]

A binary distribution of R-0.64.2 for Windows is available at
<CRAN>/bin/windows/windows-NT (at least at Wien).

Enjoy it.

guido masarotto

                      Windows News (since R0.64.2)

rw0651
======

New function savePlot() to save plots to wmf, gif or ps.

There is now support for help via compiled HTML files (as used by the
latest Microsoft products): set options(chmhelp=TRUE) to use this.
You will probably need Internet Explorer 4 or later installed to use
this, or you can install hhupd.exe from the windows/windows-NT/base/etc
directory on CRAN.

There is support for building Windows help files (as in Windows 95).
Set options(winhelp=TRUE) to make this your preferred help system.

Both compiled HTML files and Windows help are available for the
standard packages.

The new function update.packages() is supported if you have wget.exe
(a copy is in the windows/windows-NT/base/etc/wget.zip on CRAN) or
lynx.exe, from http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/lynxport.htm.

On NT only, CPU times are returned by proc.time() (using a call to
GetProcessTimes).

Rotated text on a windows / win.* device is placed more accurately,
especially for non-multiples of 90 degrees.

A windows() device reports itself as `windows' not `X11'.

getenv() now returns all the environmental variables.

unlink() can now remove (empty) directories (but not using wildcard
specifications).

The complex LINPACK routines which were not included in the Unix
versions of R are now omitted here.

There is more support for (support of) ActiveX Automation via the
Rproxy.dll: see the file front-ends/readme.

As under Unix, .Renviron is first searched for in the working directory, 
then in the home directory. (See README for how the home directory is
decided.)

The sockets code is definitely working in this version, enough to support
source.url and friends.

options(pager="console") is set as the default if --ess is used (as it
works better with Emacs).

The rounding code has been re-written to be more accurate and to round
to even as documented.

The rw-FAQ is linked into the HTML help system.

We believe the problems with re-sizing windows (especially on Windows 9x)
have been solved.



rw0650
======

[ Because Guido Masarotto was ill for several weeks, rw0650 was only ever
pre-released. ]

There are many changes `under the skin' which are not reflected in
user-visible changes, but either improve performance or will allow
future enhancements.

The environment variables have been changed: R_HOME is now R's home
directory and R_USER is the HOME for the user which will be used by R
(and defaults to HOME, if set, then to ${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}, if that
is set, then the working directory). (There are many other such
changes in R: for example RLIBS becomes R_LIBS, although for the time
being RLIBS is also recognised.)

Saving a plot as postscript from the device menu will produce a
portrait plot irrespective of the setting of ps.options().

Saving a plot as a metafile should be more reliable on machines which
report incorrect information on the size of the screen.

The new flag --no-environ suppresses reading .Renviron and is implied by
--vanilla.

When rterm is used non-interactively either --save or --no-save must be
specified: these is no longer a default of --no-save (for consistency 
with Unix).

More support for building R into other applications: see the examples
in the front-ends directory of the source distribution.

Interrupting by Esc or Ctrl-Break is handled internally by signals, so
the `User Break' response will no longer appear, but in rterm ^C will
be echoed.

There is limited support for `tilde-expansion': file paths such as
~/rest will be expanded to ${HOME}\rest if HOME is set, or to
${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}\rest if those variables are set.

Using rterm either interactively or with --ess will be more responsive and
use much less CPU time when waiting for input.  Interruptions by Ctrl-Break
or (under --ess, for use by ESS) Ctrl-C should happen immediately and be 
handled correctly. [On NT: problems with Win 98 were corrected for rw0651.]

The installer can now install correctly in a top-level directory (e.g.
C:\), fixing a bug in the unzip code used.


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