[Rd] Samples of external code with various compilers?

[Mark.Bravington@csiro.au]

#-----Original Message-----
#From: Duncan Murdoch [mailto:murdoch@stats.uwo.ca]
#Subject: Re: [Rd] Samples of external code with various compilers?
#
#
#On Wed, 4 Dec 2002 17:52:29 +1100 , you wrote in message
#<A8877251964B294BAB5BA1FC58B43FED025B440B@molly.tas.csiro.au>:
#
#>In this specific case, not all DLLs are loaded as part of packages, so
#>readme.packages might not occur to everyone. As Duncan said, 
#it might be
#>good to refer to that file via dyn.load documentation.
#
#I've put the reference there for the next release.  Any other places
#it should be mentioned?
#
#Duncan
#

I was completely unaware of readme.packages, I must say. It's not in my
distributions of 1.3.1 or 1.5.1, but it is in 1.6.1. I seem to recall that I
installed the "source" option for 1.6.1 but not for the others, which might
explain why. Note that non-C users are quite likely not to bother with the
"source" option when downloading/installing, but they might still write
DLLs.

There are three places besides dyn.load where mention or expansion might be
useful:

(1) In the main README. At present, "readme.packages" is mentioned, but only
under "Adding packages" under "installing packages from source code". Since
I was never likely to do that with other peoples' source, I didn't look at
this. Perhaps a short section in README explictly called "Writing DLLs"
(underlined with = signs) could alert people to the existence of
"readme.packages".

(2) In the help for .C etc., where the "Writing R Extensions" manual is
already referred to.

(3) And presumably in "Writing R Extensions" itself, if "readme.packages" is
likely to be a semi-permanent feature of R for Windows.

cheers
Mark

*******************************

Mark Bravington
CSIRO (CMIS)
PO Box 1538
Castray Esplanade
Hobart
TAS 7001

phone (61) 3 6232 5118
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Mark.Bravington@csiro.au