[R] R on Mobile Devices (Android)

[Alain Forget]

2009/6/19 Alain Forget <aforget at scs.carleton.ca>

> > > Hell R-list,
> > >
> > > At the cost of sounding far-fetched and almost incredulous, I would
> > > like to know if any R user is remotely considering the use of R on
> > > Mobile devices, and Android in particular.
> >
> >  First, rewrite R in Java. Good luck with that!
> >
> > http://code.google.com/android/kb/general.html#c
> >
> > > I really do not have an idea of the kind of definite incentives in
> > > terms of using R on Android, but having an analytical engine on a
> > > mobile phone would allow for micro statistics to be collected from the
> > > log files reflecting number of calls dropped, average time spent
> > > talking, a time series of the amount of time taken for battery
> > > recharge, and a host of other information that could be collated and
> > > analyzed.
> > >
> > > R widgets could be created for analyzing the data streams from other
> > > apps running on the same device.
> > >
> > > Any thoughts/suggestions/information on this topic will be highly
> appreciated.
> >
> > I think having the analytical engine on the phone is probably not a
> > good idea for something that is pretty much connected all the time.
> > Better to have a lightweight data collection engine reporting back to
> > an analytical engine on a server somewhere. Then the analytical engine
> > generates reports on a web page.
> >
> >  The data collection engine could do trivial summaries, statistics and
> > graphics in Java without needing R. If you wanted to do complex time
> > series analysis then that would be a job for the off-phone server.
> >
> > Barry
>
>
> I would absolutely love for R to work on mobile devices. I am looking for
a
> mobile that can basically be used just like a computer. I could then work
> on
> LaTeX documents, PowerPoint presentations, and of course R code when I'm
in
> transit, without the hassle of taking out (or even carrying!) my laptop.
> Mobiles have been around so many years that I don't understand why we
can't
> use them like computers and install or use whatever software we want on
> them.
>
> Anyway, if R could work Windows Mobile and/or Android, that'd be
absolutely
> fantastic, in my opinion.
>
> Alain




Since R is opensource language, there are couple of things that need to be
sorted before R can be ported to <insert-your-handheld>'s architecture;
There needs to be decent C compiler/SDK available for it. Then theres a
question of compatible license. Once thats sorted, I am sure porters will
have very little trouble porting R to the particular architecture.

I am looking forward to a pre-compiled R port for Android meself! heh :)

-- 
Regards,
Ishwor Gurung

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]



Hi Ishwor,

Ugh, lots of roadblocks. Do you think there's any chance that I could just
install the Windows version of R onto a Windows Mobile device? I'm currently
trying to set up a Windows Mobile 6.1 emulator, so I may actually find out
soon.

Alain