[R] Writing Excel (.xls) files on non-Windows OSs using Perl

[Gregory Warnes]

Since I wrote the xls2csv.pl and read.xls() code for gdata, a perl  
module for writing MS-Excel files has come on the scene.  I don't  
have the time at the moment to create an csv2xls.pl file, but it  
should be straightforward, and I would gladly add it to the gdata  
package.

-G


On Jul 9, 2007, at 12:15PM , Uwe Ligges wrote:

>
>
> Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>> Note that there already is a function, read.xls, in gdata that  
>> uses Perl.
>
> Note that Marc talked about *writing* in his original message.
>
> Uwe Ligges
>
>
>> On 7/9/07, Marc Schwartz <marc_schwartz at comcast.net> wrote:
>>> On Mon, 2007-07-09 at 16:42 +0300, Hans-Peter wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> 2007/7/8, Marc Schwartz <marc_schwartz at comcast.net>:
>>>>> [snip]
>>>>> There exists the xlsReadWrite package on CRAN by Hans-Peter  
>>>>> Suter, which
>>>>> is restricted to Windows, since it utilizes the non-FOSS MS  
>>>>> Office API
>>>>> to write the Excel formats.
>>>> The non-FOSS API is not the problem(#) but its implementation is:
>>>>
>>>> The 3rd party library I use is written in Pascal and supports  
>>>> Delphi
>>>> and Kylix. Kylix would allow to port the package to Linux but as  
>>>> Kylix
>>>> has unfortunately been abandoned by CodeGear (Borland) I am not
>>>> ready/interested to spend my time on this dead road. Though it
>>>> probably could be done quickly.
>>>>
>>>> A much more interesting way is to port the package using  
>>>> FreePascal.
>>>> --> I plan to do this since long but...
>>>> --> Maybe someone fluent on Linux and FreePascal could have a  
>>>> look at
>>>> the pascal header files (treetron.googlepages.com) and make the  
>>>> demos
>>>> run on Linux..., that would be great and speed up an eventual
>>>> xlsReadWrite port!
>>> Thanks for the clarification.
>>>
>>> However, I think that if you are going to pursue a cross-platform
>>> solution, providing source code requiring compilation (as opposed  
>>> to a
>>> pre-compiled Windows binary), you should consider what the  
>>> installation
>>> requirements for your package would then be.
>>>
>>> If you are going to take the step of requiring a prospective end- 
>>> user to
>>> have a particular Pascal compiler in place, you may as well have the
>>> requirement for a Perl interpreter and associated packages. Since  
>>> Perl
>>> is widely available and you are more likely to find Perl-fluent  
>>> coders
>>> as opposed to Pascal-fluent coders (eg. I have not used Pascal  
>>> since the
>>> late 80's), I would urge you to consider Perl as a future  
>>> substrate for
>>> your functions.
>>>
>>> While compiled code will run faster than interpreted code, for these
>>> types of file I/O functions, I am not sure that you lose much  
>>> with Perl
>>> from a performance standpoint and you certainly gain the eyes of  
>>> a wider
>>> audience with respect to use, debugging and enhancements.
>>>
>>> To that end, you (or any other interested parties) are free to  
>>> utilize
>>> my code in any way you deem appropriate. I did not state this in my
>>> original post, but I make the code available under GPL(v2),  
>>> freeing you
>>> from any restrictions in its use, including your "Pro" version,  
>>> as long
>>> as you make the source available in a fashion consistent with the  
>>> GPL
>>> requirements.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Marc Schwartz
>>>
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>>>
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting- 
>> guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting- 
> guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.