[Rd] Re: [R] pl/R and MacOS X using R binary

[Sean Davis]

On Apr 19, 2005, at 8:56 AM, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:

> [Moved from R-help.]
>
> On Tue, 19 Apr 2005, Sean Davis wrote:
>
>> I'm sorry if this is too off-topic--feel free to ignore.  I am 
>> interested in using pl/R, an amazing "plugin" for the postgresql 
>> database.  As is typical of these types of applications, pl/R needs 
>> to link against a shared library. However, it appears that the MacOS 
>> R binary does not build a static (.so) shared library.
>
> Excuse me, but a .so is a DSO, a Dynamic _Shared_ Object.  What does 
> `static' have to do with this?  libR is a dynamic library, actually 
> libR$(DYLIB_EXT) with values of .so. .sl and .dylib being known.
>

My misunderstanding, you are correct in that assumption.  Your 
explanation helps a lot.

>> Is there an accepted, general way (read, a way that works) for 
>> linking against R (presumably the dylib) on the Mac?
>
> Yes, since that is how the GUI on MacOS X works.
>
> My guess is that you think that pl/R requires libR.so: if correct that 
> is a false assumption made somewhere along the line, and the best 
> thing to do is to consult the author.  In any case
>

This is again my misunderstanding.

> Please do consult the posting guide as to the right place.  (I've 
> moved this to R-devel and included Joe Conway. Joe: perhaps you could 
> make you email address more readily available in the PL/R pages.)
>

Actually, Joe has been quite helpful in this regard and the question 
has come up on his pl/R email list before, but without resolution, as 
far as I could tell (but again, I could be sadly mistaken).  I thought 
that posting to r-help (with the caveat that I was perhaps off-topic) 
would clarify things for me a bit.  It has done just that and I really 
appreciate your willingness to answer the off-topic post and move it to 
the appropriate forum.

Sean