[Rd] package matrix dummy.cpp

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> Prof Brian Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk>
>>>>>     on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 16:00:53 +0000 (GMT) writes:

    > It is Matrix, not matrix ....  
indeed!

    > I too have corresponded with them about this.  It seems to
    > be a legacy from when the package contained C++ code, and
    > can now be deleted.

yes.  Though, as Brian mentions below it's strange that you
can't compile the package (how?) with the file present.
I'd guess that this would mean you cannot (easily) install any
CRAN packages that use C++ ?
I think this will preclude you from using very fine R extensions!


    > On Sun, 28 Nov 2010, Ambrus Kaposi wrote:

    >> Hi,
    >> 
    >> The recommended package matrix contains an empty file
    >> src/dummy.cpp which results in using g++ instead of gcc
    >> to link Matrix.so.  What is the reason for that? Is there
    >> any difference between using g++ or gcc? (There are no
    >> other cpp files in the source) I asked the maintainers of
    >> the package (matrix-authors at r-project.org) 3 weeks ago
    >> but haven't received any answer.  

I apologize for that. Both Professor Doug Bates and I have been
overloaded, and so this has "slipped".

    >> On my system (NixOS
    >> Linux distribution, http://nixos.org) I can't compile
    >> package Matrix unless this file is deleted.

    > Most likely you have not installed the C++ compiler (which
    > is usually g++ on Linux) -- but you shouldn't need to in
    > order to install R.

Indeed, currently a C++ compiler for compiling/linking the R
sources should not be needed just because of dummy.cpp in
Matrix; and hence I've removed it for the next version of Matrix.
However, as said above, I strongly believe your OS / R setup
should be amended in such a way that you can also easily install
packages with C++ code.

Best regards,
Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich




    >> Thank you very much, Ambrus Kaposi