[Rd] Packages in R & Java

[Marsland, John]

Clearly, I disagree in some areas. But you raise an interesting, but perhaps
unintended, question:

Do we think that R is a programming language in its own right where we seek
to develop code and then build on that code for example in a object oriented
way? 

Or, is R a mechanism for combining lots of C/C++/Fortran libraries (written
by suitably qualified experts) at the command line in an easy to use
interpreted fashion in order to crunch the numbers and display them nicely?

Surely, if it's a speed issue we should try to help to make R faster for
these sorts of problems rather than just bailing out into C at the first
opportunity?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: rossini at blindglobe.net [mailto:rossini at blindglobe.net]
> Sent: 27 February 2004 15:32
> To: Marsland, John
> Cc: r-devel at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: Re: [Rd] Packages in R & Java
> 
> 
> "Marsland, John" <John.Marsland at CommerzbankIB.com> writes:
> 
> > Yes, lots of packages do use C/Fortran code ... it would be 
> great if there
> > were more packages that are "pure R" especially since the 
> advent of S4
> > classes and namespaces.
> 
> Even with those, quite often we have to move code to C/C++/Fortran for
> efficiency.
> 
> > Is it worth suggesting that we create a designation "pure 
> R" for packages
> > that have no external source code and encourage more of 
> these? Indeed, now
> > the number of packages is so big could they be classified 
> to aid potential
> > users?
> 
> Not sure that would be good (encouragement).  It would compromise
> solid design principles for aesthetics.  
> 
> > Going back to the original question, it strikes me that 
> C/Fortran code is
> > most often used to interface to other code - there would be 
> a better way of
> > doing this in a Java environment - or to speed up existing 
> R code - where
> > loops are usually the cause of the speed problem and the 
> introduction Java
> > bytecode would presumably be helpful anyway. Surely there 
> could be some sort
> > of process to generate automated jni bindings?
> 
> Argh.  JNI is not a saviour.  It's a royal PITA.
> 
> And C/Fortran code is probably just as often used to speed up 
> computations.
> 
> > I don't think a Java implementation of the R parser is as 
> bigger task as it
> > seems ... much of the work to get an interpreted scripting 
> language working
> > could be taken from the Jython project?
> 
> See the Omegahat LANGUAGE for a solid start on this.  R-like syntax,
> and lots more.  Does anyone still use it?
> 
> best,
> -tony
> 
> -- 
> rossini at u.washington.edu            
http://www.analytics.washington.edu/ 
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