2011/4/12 Uwe Ligges <ligges@statistik.tu-dortmund.de>

> On 12.04.2011 14:52, Ian Davis wrote:
>
>> I really do appreciate the help from you and Douglas on resolving this
>> problem.  However, I respectfully disagree on a few points:
>>
>> - install.packages() was broken and failing to install successfully.
>>
>
> install.packages() works well, it is *not* broken.
>

Perhaps I was unclear in my choice of words -- install.packages() *is* not
"broken" in the general sense;  it does work well, most of the time.
However, at the time I reported the problem, it *was* failing to install
plyr, using three different mirrors.  That is,

    install.packages("plyr")

gave an error message and did not successfully install the package, whether
I specified the mirror at CMU, NIH, or UNC-CH.  That's all I meant by
"broken".  I understand that you believe this *should not* or even *cannot*
happen, but I'm telling you that it did.  This may indicate there is a bug
in the mirroring process, in that, under exceptional conditions yet to be
identified, install.packages() et al. are unable to retrieve correct,
consistent information from a mirror for a period of time.

Again, to be clear, I'm not protesting that the *newest* packages were
unavailable on these three mirrors.  I'm protesting that *no version at all*
of plyr was available from these three mirrors, using install.packages(), at
the time I reported the problem.  I'll leave it at this -- I'm only trying
to help out by reporting a bug in the process.  If no one cares, I'll shut
up and sit down.

Regards,
Ian

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