[Rd] R-1.2.3: a small suggestion (PR#961)

[Kurt Hornik]

>>>>> Paul Gilbert writes:

>> IF we drop the "easy package migration" aspect and just let people do
>> separate installs with separate generation of site libraries, would we
>> not be in the clear?

> I think "easy package migration" is a great objective, but I expect it
> is a serious constraint sometimes. In some respects, as a user,
> reliable is more important. It is easier to expect that you always
> have to re-build packages then to expect you don't need to and then
> get surprised sometimes.  There are whole operating systems dedicated
> to showing that "easy" can be very difficult when it doesn't work.

> Please keep in mind that the problems don't always come just with
> different R versions. I'm currently using two systems (Solaris 5.6 and
> 5.8) with a shared nfs file system and I find that R built on 5.8 does
> not work on 5.6.

Well ... at greatest generality one could support multiple versions of R
for multiple platforms in the same tree.  E.g., via

	R_HOME/VERSION/share
	R_HOME/VERSION/bin/PLATFORM
	R_HOME/VERSION/library/PKG/R
	R_HOME/VERSION/library/PKG/libs/PLATFORM

etc etc.  Again, long time ago it was decided not to have this.  

> (Also, please keep in mind that R is not always installed by someone
> with root priveleges.)

Right.  But the above could be applied to all library trees, at least.

-k

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