[R] Where is the tcltk package? --- Summary

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Fri, 8 Apr 2011, Rolf Turner wrote:

>
> Summary of what I've learned:
>
> (1) The tcltk package ***comes with R***; one does not install it from CRAN.
>
> (2) In order for it to work, you need to have the *development* version of
> tcltk installed on your system.
>
> (3) Under Ubuntu Linux you can obtain the aforesaid development version by:
>
>    sudo apt-get install tcl8.5-dev tk8.5-dev
>
> (I still don't know what one does if that number 8.5 changes --- as new
> releases come about.  How does one find out the number of the latest
> release of tcl/tk?)

Happens about once a decade, so nothing much to worry about.  But the 
short answer is the install the -dev packages matching those packages 
you already have installed.

[Tcl/Tk 8.6 is in beta, and has had no progress for 18 months.]

> I hope that this may be of use to someone in the future.

Following the current manual is likely to be more useful to them. 
Let's see: Appendix A:

Remember that some package management systems (such as RPM and deb) 
make a distinction between the user version of a package and the 
development version. The latter usually has the same name but with the 
extension `-devel' or `-dev': you need both versions installed.

The tcltk package needs Tcl/Tk >= 8.4 installed: the sources are 
available at http://www.tcl.tk/.
...

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595