[R] Revolution R and the R Community?

[ivo welch]

thank you, everybody, for enlightening me and others about the
relationships involved.  I hope Revolution R and other companies like
it will succeed.  I don't mind RR being free to academics---if nothing
else, I like it for the fact that I can install RR without worry on a
couple of different computers I own, and not have to worry about
licenses.  (this is why I do not like matlab.)

what I do hope for is compatibility---that is, if a program runs on
RR, it should also run under R.  maybe just having stubs that link to
slower native facilities under standard R for anything RR does special
would be good.  IMHO, R would benefit from line numbers (for error
messages and debugging, GUI preferably) and ubiquitous multithreading.
 then again, as far as I am concerned, the folks who are developing it
are saints for having put together what they have put together.  I
hope that, if RR succeeds, they get to make a ton of $$s consulting,
too.

I also like the idea that people like myself, who are primarily
end-users and thus benefit greatly, should pay at least some.  this
would be best done if all like me where to contribute.  too much
free-riding.  I like the idea of "nag-ware"---if you have not paid and
you are using the 64-bit package (rather than the 32-bit package),
there could be a small sleep-time at startup and/or some nagging to
donate $25 via paypal to the foundation.

this reminds me---time to donate.  I should do so through my research
budget, but this is difficult when called a donation.  I wish the
foundation sold a few overpriced trinkets (or r-help support
certificates or whatever) for me to run by our own university
accounting system.  they would see it strange otherwise if a
tax-exempt organization (like Brown U) were to donate money to a
non-tax-exempt institution (like the R foundation).

/iaw