[R] Installing packages from source on WindowsXP

[Marc Schwartz]

On Fri, 2005-04-22 at 09:46 -0400, Tyler Smith wrote:
> Ok, I uninstalled my copy of HHW (and deleted the extra file from the 
> Rtools/bin folder), and reinstalled from the murdoch-sutherland site. 
>  From what I read there I think it's the same version, and I actually 
> get a warning that I already have a newer version installed on my 
> machine (1.3.1) anyways. Just for good measure I installed it to 
> C:\HTMLHelpWorkshop, instead of the default location in Program 
> Files\HTML Help Workshop, in case the spaces in the folder names was an 
> issue. I updated the Path variable and voila, everything seems to be 
> working fine. So, whatever the actual problem was, it's gone now. Magic. 
> Thanks!!
> 
> On a related note, now that I seem to be on top of installing packages 
> from source files, is there any advantage to installing the R software 
> itself from source files? From the help files that sounds even trickier...
> 
> Tyler

R Windows FAQ 2.17 "R can't find my file, but I know it is there!"

"...
 Another possible source of grief is spaces in folder names.
..."


Also, from the R Admin Manual (page 35):

"Do not use filepaths containing spaces"


If you want to compile from source, be sure to completely review the R
Admin Manual for details on this process under Windows.

There are some potential advantages relative to using optimized
libraries (ie. BLAS). These are mentioned in the Admin Manual.

HTH,

Marc Schwartz