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

[Detlef Steuer]

Hi,

I`m the one to blame for the readme :-) and for providing the rpms.

If you encounter such big problems my readme sucks. But I'm open for
critisism and will improve on the current situation for the
release of R-2.3.0 next monday.

It would have helped, if I got the error messages you saw. Now  I just
have to guess.

I think you'll be able to find a step by step instruction by the end of
the week on CRAN.

Part of the problem is that R and Suse are moving targets. On the
opensuse side there are packages, which are not on the CDs but in the
online repositories that have to be downloaded seperately. Ranting
alone won't help.

Look here: http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/content/view/178/42/
for some introductory material.
You can add http://fawn.hsu-hh.de/~steuer/SL-10.0-OSS as installation
source for R and ESS.

That the installation procedure is different for any flavour of Linux
than the one you know from windows should not surprise you. Whatever
distribution you'll end up using: the time invested to learn the
respective package management system will pay back.

Feel free to ask any question on R on SuSE. I would be happy to send
you the next readme for review.

Regards, 
Detlef 

 

On Wed, 19 Apr 2006 21:05:22 +0200
Tom Backer Johnsen <backer at psych.uib.no> wrote:

> 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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