[R] I am surprised (and a little irritated)

[bogdan romocea]

Installing R on SuSE 10.0 may be less than trivial for a beginner (I
ended up compiling GCC plus 3-4 other things). In case you lose your
patience I'd suggest trying Mepis Linux: it's very easy to install and
the package management GUI (Synaptic) is great. Installing R together
with a bunch of R packages, courtesy of the Debian folks, is a breeze.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Tom
> Backer Johnsen
> Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 3:05 PM
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: [R] I am surprised (and a little irritated)
>
> I have started with using R on Windows, and I am really happy about
> the system.  Now, one of my other ambitions is to learn how to use
> Linux, so yesterday I downloaded OpenSuse and installed that.  The
> next problem was to try to use R with Linux.  And there I met the
> wall.  I've understood that RPM's are somewhat like installing
> programs on Windows, so that was downloaded and started with YAST.
>
> And got some error messages about missing stuff.  The first reactions
> is surprise -- there must be an error in the installation procedure.
> I have never (well, almost) met an installation procedure on Windows
> that did not include everything needed.  And the installation of R on
> Windows was very smooth.  Then I discover to my big surprise that the
> readme file says that I need to have eight installed packages.  Then
> it says "Most of them are included in a standard install".  Sigh.
> Then the problem next is to find out which of the eight I
> already have
> and which ones I need to locate somewhere.  Where can I find them I
> wonder.  Somewhere on the net?  And that is how far I got today.
>
> So, one of the complaints I have is that the instructions for
> installing R on Linux are very cryptic, and to a large extent assume
> that you already know Linux.  Which I do not.  And I expect
> instructions on installing should be simple and clear.  But I am a
> very experienced computer user, so I really expect to be able to
> understand instructions.  I cannot expect my students to
> manage what I
> cannot manage myself, so Linux is out, or at least Suse Linux.  And
> that is a pity, for a number of reasons.
>
> The second is just as much surprise at the installation procedure.
> Under Windows there are any number of installers which make it easy
> for a programmer to put together all the files needed and place them
> in the right place.
>
> And simeone should get the OpenSuse people to include R in the
> installation.
>
> Tom
>
> +----------------------------------------------------------------+
> | Tom Backer Johnsen, Psychometrics Unit,  Faculty of Psychology |
> | University of Bergen, Christies gt. 12, N-5015 Bergen,  NORWAY |
> | Tel : +47-5558-9185                        Fax : +47-5558-9879 |
> | Email : backer at psych.uib.no    URL : http://www.galton.uib.no/ |
> +----------------------------------------------------------------+
>
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