The first version of xlsReadWrite has been uploaded to CRAN.


-- WHAT IS IT? / R COMMANDS

The package allows you to read and write Excel files natively. The supported
Format is BIFF 8, i.e. Excel from version 97 up to 2003.

• read.xls( file, colNames = TRUE, sheet = 1, type = "data.frame", from = 1
)
• write.xls( x, file, colNames = TRUE, sheet = 1, from = 1 )


-- PLATFORM / LICENSE

Currently the package is only available on Windows (see also below).

The license is GPLv2 with an exception to allow the use of a third party
library (flexcel). With this exception the package as a whole becomes a
non-free package (according to the R license non-free packages are not
encouraged but at least possible/tolerated). See also README.

-- TECHNICAL BACKGROUND / PRO VERSION:

The core of this package is written in Delphi (PASCAL) and uses the R
headerfiles for Delphi which I have written earlier (see website below). For
the actual read/write operation in excel a proprietary library (Flexcel) is
used as I wouldn't be able to write this by myself and because for pascal
there are not open source libraries available. (AFAIK. - I am aware of
Apache POI (Java), a library for OpenOffice (C, too much work to translate
to pascal) and also some older one which don't support BIFF8).

I intend to make available (in 2 - 3 weeks) a pro version which has some
more functionality and formal support. As an independant developer I am
certainly happy if people will check this version out or consider a
contribution, but it is not my idea to play "silly shareware games", the
open source version works well and I am commited to support it as far as I
can.

-- OTHER PLATFORMS (Linux/Mac)

Technically xlsReadWrite could be crossplatform. Flexcel already has a Kylix
version, which means that it could be made to run on Linux almost
immediately. The IMO better way would be to port the code to *FreePascal*:
this fits better in the open source world of R and this also would make it
possible to supply a Mac version. - While I started to port it, I didn't
succeed in the 2 days I have given me. - If there are any "pascal-lovers"
out there I would be very interested to get in touch, it would be more fun
to do it together than to try all by myself.


-- MORE INFOS / CONTACT:

At http://treetron.googlepages.com/ you will find an additional file with
testdata/-scripts and more infos (contact, bugs (currently nothing),
suggestions and todos).

I hope you enjoy using this package (I certainly do...) and am looking
forward to any feedback you might have.

Best regards,
Hans-Peter

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