[R] 64-bit OSX binary for 2.9.2

[David Winsemius]

On Sep 14, 2009, at 11:59 AM, Steve Lianoglou wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On Sep 14, 2009, at 11:44 AM, ivo welch wrote:
>
>> dear R wizards:  I am looking for a binary package distribution of  
>> R 2.9.2
>> for OSX .  Looking at http://r.research.att.com/ , there seems to  
>> be only a
>> binary for 2.9.0 .  is the 2.9.2 version binary package available
>> somewhere?   (at this point, would it make sense to elevate the 64- 
>> bit
>> version to a "standard recommended" rather than just a "boutique"  
>> version?)
>
> There isn't a *.pkg / *.dmg install for it, but it's there. In this  
> section:
>
> Universal nightly builds for Mac OS X (10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard)
>
> Third row in the table:
>
> http://r.research.att.com/R-2.9-branch-leopard-universal.tar.gz
>
> You have to inflate it at the root of your HD. The text right below  
> the d/l table tells you how to do that:
>
> """Alternatively you can use the tar-ball (*.tar.gz) which must be  
> unpacked in the root (e.g. tar fvxz R*.tar.gz -C /), but doesn't  
> contain the GUI (see below for a separate download)."""

The problem may arise for  *NIX-newbies ( a group in which I still  
claim membership)  that they are unable to operationalize that  
message. For one thing they may not even know how to open a Terminal  
window. For another they may not know that the "/" at the end of that  
command will take care of "unpacking at the root", so they will not  
need to navigate away from the place that they find themselves when  
Terminal opens up a bash session.  The steps broken down would be  
something along these lines:

First : Download the nightly build, and select "Save to file" rather  
than opening with Stuffit, and then it by default should end up in the  
<user>/Downloads/ folder.

1. a-c) Go to the Utilities folder of the Applications folder and  
double-click on Terminal.app
2. a) Go back to the browser and select the string:  tar fvxz  
R*.tar.gz -C /

(I would solicit some input here from more competent UNIXers regarding  
whether one would ever need to prefix this command with sudo.)

2. b) cmd-C to put it in the clipboard
2. c) click on the Terminal window and cmd-V to paste-in that command.
2 d) use the arrow and backspace keys (since mouse-clicking does not  
change the cursor position in Terminal sessions) to delete the  
"R*.tar.gz" on the command line.

3 a) Navigate with the Finder to the Downloads/ folder and locate the  
R<build>. Click-drag that file to the Terminal window and  
"unclick" (or is it lift-click) when the pointer is at the place on  
the command line where the "R*.tar.gz" used to be. A full path version  
of the file name will get inserted (an no quotes are needed, unlike  
what one might expect after working in R regularly.)

On my machine, one now sees this on the command line:
tar fvxz /Users/davidwinsemius/Downloads/R-2.9-branch-leopard- 
universal.tar.gz  -C /

4) Hit <return>

Sit back and watch the show.

You can the separately download the appropriate R-GUI and put in in  
the /Applications/ folder.

>
> You'll have to install the R.app GUI separately if you want to use  
> the 2.9.2 install, otherwise I think the 2.9.0 *.pkg installer  
> includes it, though I'm not sure.

It does, In fact, it has both the 32 bit GUI and the 64 bit GUI. What  
I did was install that package _first_ which gave me 2.9.0 and then  
performed the steps above. You really would not want to do it in a  
reversed order, since you would be replacing R 2.9.2 with R 2.9.0.

And of course this message _should_ have gone to r-sig-mac at stat.math.ethz.ch 
  and any follow up should trim the r-help address.

-- 
David Winsemius, MD
Heritage Laboratories
West Hartford, CT