[R-pkg-devel] New package with C++ code causes R abort in RStudio, not in R console.

[Vladimir Dergachev]

Hi Luc,

   The standard tools for writing parsers are "flex" and "bison" - they 
generate code automatically and so can save you a lot of effort. For 
language with simple syntax you can get away with just using "flex".

   Here are some examples:

Flex:

https://westes.github.io/flex/manual/Simple-Examples.html#Simple-Examples

Bison:

https://www.gnu.org/software/bison/manual/bison.html#Infix-Calc

best

Vladimir Dergachev

On Tue, 12 Nov 2024, Luc De Wilde wrote:

> Dear R package developers,
>
> I'm helping with the development of the lavaan package (see https://lavaan.ugent.be/) and currently writing a C++ version of the parser of the model syntax in lavaan. The package with C++ code is in  https://github.com/lucdw/lavaanC. 
>
> When testing with a bunch of models, there is one model that causes an abort of the R session in RStudio (on Windows), but in the R console or in a batch job it causes no errors. The model is the following : 
> model <- ' 
>     F1 =~ "a b"*X1
>     F2 =~ a * X1 + 3*X2 # dat is hier een beetje commentaar
>     # efa block 2
>     efa("efa2")*f3 +
>     efa("efa2")*f4 =~ y1 + y2 + y3 + y1:y3
>     f4 := 3.14159 * F2
>     F1 ~ start(0.76)*F2 + a*F2
>     a == (b + f3)^2
>     b1 > exp(b2 + b3) '
>
> and the translation can be tested - after installing lavaanC - with 
>
> lavaanC::lav_parse_model_string_c(model)
>
> As mentioned, this causes an abort of the R session when executed in RStudio on Windows (10 or 11), but passes without problem in the R console or a batch job.
>
> Because many users are using RStudio I 'd like to tackle this problem, but don't know how to pinpoint the cause of the problem. I hope some of you have an idea how to handle this problem ...
>
> All the best,
>
>
> Luc De Wilde
>
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