[R] Bug (?): reading binary files in Windows 10

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 06/12/2018 7:45 AM, Kate Stone wrote:
> Hello r-help,
> 
> Could you help me determine whether this is an R bug or not?
> 
> I've been trying to read this binary file in R:
> 
> download.file("ftp://ftp.fieldtriptoolbox.org/pub/fieldtrip/tutorial/preprocessing_erp/s04.eeg","s04.eeg")
> 
> and I get a different length file (i.e. much longer) in Windows  >= 8
> x64 (build 9200) than in Ubuntu. I've tested it with different R
> versions in Windows and different package versions with the same
> incorrect result. Other colleagues have tested it on the same
> Windows/Ubuntu builds and got the correct length.
> 
> I'm not sure whether this is an R problem or something to do with my
> OS specifically, or even with the file itself. Any ideas?? I've
> attached a small script demonstrating the issue.

On Windows, the `mode = "wb"` argument to download.file() is important, 
otherwise it is assumed to be a text file, and LF is changed to CR LF. 
There may also be handling of EOF marks, I forget.

Duncan Murdoch