[R] gnu ODBC driver for ORACLE in WinXP platform?

[Uwe Ligges]

Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
> On Tue, 6 Oct 2009, Kenneth Roy Cabrera Torres wrote:
> 
>> Hi R users and Dr. Uwe Ligges:
>>
>> I read on the ROracle pre-compiled binary README file that:
> 
> Hmm, that is from the CRAN README on Windows pre-compiled binary 
> packages: there is no 'ROracle pre-compiled binary' (for Windows or Mac 
> OS X) on CRAN.
> 
>> "Although the package ROracle passes make check, it seems to be
>> dangerous to distribute it:
>> I do not have the software available this package depends on."
>>
>> Why it is dangerous to use ROracle for windows?
>> What software does ROracle depends on in windows platform?
> 
> Oracle (just like every other platform)!  I believe the statement is 
> out-of-date: ROracle seems not to build with current versions of R. But 
> the main issues were


Indeed, the statement is out of date. I haven't tried to build it for 
years now. Will change that part of the ReadMe.
Thanks to Brian for the comprehensive answer.

Best,
Uwe Ligges




> 
> (a) It needs to link against Oracle's client software, and that depends 
> on the particular version of Oracle.  Bitter experience suggests that 
> you need to build such packages from the sources against the client 
> software installed on your machine to get reliable service from them.
> 
> (b) The package does no actual tests in its examples.  It may appear to 
> build but not work in practice, since nothing is tested in the build 
> process.
> 
>> Is there a GNU solution for an ODBC driver on windows XP platform
>> for ORACLE for use it with RODBC?
> 
> What does GNU have to do with this?  RODBC works with Oracle with 
> Oracle's own Windows drivers, and a test suite for Oracle is in the 
> sources.  Now, that has been tested against only a couple of versions of 
> Oracle, but ODBC is a well-documented API and Oracle's ODBC driver 
> writers should always be complying with it.
> 
> If perchance by 'GNU' you meant 'GPL' or 'Open Source' then
> 
> - Oracle is proprietary, although there are 'free as in beer'
>   versions.
> 
> - the most open you can be is to communicate with it via an open API,
>   and ODBC is such (and I think the only one supported by Oracle).
> 
>>
>> Thank you for your help.
> 
> It does seem churlish to be asking why the hard-working volunteers have 
> *not* provided you with a binary version of a package, and such queries 
> are more common than thanks for those that *are* provided (something 
> like 20x as many).
> 
>>
>> Kenneth
>