[R] Lazy loading... advices

[Uwe Ligges]

Philippe Grosjean wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I am looking for more information about lazy loading introduced in R 2.0.0.
> Doing
> ?lazyLoad
> I got some and there is a 'see also' section that points to
> 'makeLazyLoading'... But I cannot reach this page.
> 
> My problem is: I recompiled a library 

Philippe,

citing Doug Bates: "Someone named Martin Maechler will shortly be 
sending you email regarding the distinction between 'library' and 
'package'". ;-)

[from:
   install.packages("fortunes")
   library(fortunes)
   fortune("library")
]


 > that uses a lot of functions from
> other libraries (of course I can give details if needed). I load it in my
> computer: library(svGUI), and it takes something like 20 seconds to load. In
> R 1.9.1 it took 3-4 seconds on the same machine (Windows XP). So, I try now
> to understand the mechanism and to find a way to lower the loading time of
> this library with lazy loading (its goal is to load faster, isn't, so I
> probably do something wrong).

It might not always be faster. See Brian Ripley's article in the most 
recent R Newsletter. Probably you are using a lot of functions in the 
startup directly after the call to library() (in .First.lib() or 
.onLoad() or Hooks or whatever).
I think you want to specify "LazyLoad: no" in the package's DESCRIPTION 
file (cp. "Writing R Extensions").

Uwe




> Any help or advice would be appreciated.
> 
> Here is a Rprof of library(svGUI) on my machine:
> 
> » summaryRprof()
> $by.self
>                         self.time self.pct total.time total.pct
> file.exists                  7.42     24.9       8.46      28.4
> list.files                   7.24     24.3       7.32      24.6
> file                         6.78     22.8       6.88      23.1
> read.dcf                     1.42      4.8       9.24      31.0
> file.info                    0.54      1.8       0.82       2.8
> lapply                       0.52      1.7       8.96      30.1
> inherits                     0.34      1.1      28.76      96.5
> names                        0.34      1.1       0.38       1.3
> names<-                      0.30      1.0       0.42       1.4
> paste                        0.30      1.0       0.66       2.2
> close.connection             0.24      0.8       0.24       0.8
> .Call                        0.20      0.7       0.20       0.7
> apply                        0.20      0.7       0.58       1.9
> .find.package                0.18      0.6      18.14      60.9
> [... More here]
> 
> $by.total
>                         total.time total.pct self.time self.pct
> library                      29.70      99.7      0.00      0.0
> try                          29.64      99.5      0.10      0.3
> f                            29.36      98.5      0.00      0.0
> firstlib                     29.36      98.5      0.00      0.0
> Require                      28.96      97.2      0.00      0.0
> match                        28.80      96.6      0.08      0.3
> inherits                     28.76      96.5      0.34      1.1
> is.factor                    28.76      96.5      0.00      0.0
> %in%                         28.60      96.0      0.00      0.0
> installed.packages           28.60      96.0      0.00      0.0
> unlist                       21.46      72.0      0.08      0.3
> packageDescription           21.22      71.2      0.10      0.3
> system.file                  19.18      64.4      0.08      0.3
> .find.package                18.14      60.9      0.18      0.6
> guiInstall                   11.82      39.7      0.00      0.0
> read.dcf                      9.24      31.0      1.42      4.8
> lapply                        8.96      30.1      0.52      1.7
> file.exists                   8.46      28.4      7.42     24.9
> FUN                           7.82      26.2      0.02      0.1
> list.files                    7.32      24.6      7.24     24.3
> .packages                     7.20      24.2      0.02      0.1
> file                          6.88      23.1      6.78     22.8
> require                       3.42      11.5      0.00      0.0
> [... More here]
> 
> This is the description of my package (in the bundle SciViews):
> 
> Package: svGUI
> Title: SciViews GUI API - Main GUI features
> Description: Functions to communicate with a GUI client, to implement an
> object browser, etc...
> Bundle: SciViews
> Version: 0.7-0
> Date: 2004-10-10
> Depends: utils, grDevices, graphics, stats, methods, tcltk, R2HTML, svMisc
> Suggests: Hmisc, MASS, wxPython
> Author: Philippe Grosjean & Eric Lecoutre
> Maintainer: Philippe Grosjean <phgrosjean at sciviews.org>
> BundleDescription: SciViews GUI API
>   A series of packages to implement a full reusable GUI API for R.
> License: GPL 2 or above
> URL: http://www.sciviews.org/SciViews-R
> 
> Thank you.
> Best,
> 
> Philippe Grosjean
> 
> ..............................................<°}))><........
>  ) ) ) ) )
> ( ( ( ( (    Prof. Philippe Grosjean
>  ) ) ) ) )
> ( ( ( ( (    Numerical Ecology of Aquatic Systems
>  ) ) ) ) )   Mons-Hainaut University, Pentagone
> ( ( ( ( (    Academie Universitaire Wallonie-Bruxelles
>  ) ) ) ) )   6, av du Champ de Mars, 7000 Mons, Belgium  
> ( ( ( ( (       
>  ) ) ) ) )   phone: + 32.65.37.34.97, fax: + 32.65.37.33.12
> ( ( ( ( (    email: Philippe.Grosjean at umh.ac.be
>  ) ) ) ) )      
> ( ( ( ( (    web:   http://www.umh.ac.be/~econum
>  ) ) ) ) )
> ..............................................................
> 
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