[R-sig-Debian] REvolution R sneaking inside Ubuntu ???

[Martin Maechler]

Thanks a lot, Dirk, for the clarifications and background info!!
Martin

On Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 16:28, Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd at debian.org> wrote:
>
> On 5 October 2009 at 09:52, Martin Maechler wrote:
> | Read this on R-help,
> | subject  "[R] Ubuntu, Revolutions, R".
> |
> | I can hardly believe it's true and at the moment suspect
> | that Andrew has a very unusual '/etc/apt/sources.list' or
> | (an analogoue of that)
> |
> | Any qualified comments,
> | Dirk Eddelbuettel, Vincent Goulet, ??
>
> Please see the follow-up by David Smith on r-help.
>
> In short: Canonical and REvolution have cooperated to provide an enhanced R
> version in the upcoming Ubuntu release due out at the end of October. It
> offers both the Intel MKL (the fastest BLAS available thanks to extensive
> code optimization and, where possible, multithreaded operations) and the
> REvolution 'iterators', 'foreach', 'doMC', 'doSNOW' packages that make
> parallel execution easier (either via Simon's multicore or via snow).
>
> Nothing is taken away from R, and the only visible change is the message from
> /etc/R/Rprofile.site which can be commented-out rather easily. It can also be
> suppressed by using one ot the standard options --silent, --slave or --quiet.
>
> As you asked: I have provided technical assistance via the packaging and the
> integration into the Ubuntu release.  I have also tested this fairly
> rigorously on amd64 and i386 machines.  Lastly, the 'R-for-Ubuntu-via-CRAN'
> process that is handled by Vincent and Michael is completely separate from
> this and continues to be a straight port of my Debian package.
>
> If you have any questions, I'd be happy to take them off-line. I look forward
> to your comments once your Ubuntu installation has upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10.
>
> Regards, Dirk
>
>
> | Martin
> |
> |
> | >>>>> "AC" == Andrew Choens <andy.choens at gmail.com>
> | >>>>>     on Sun, 4 Oct 2009 23:40:44 -0400 writes:
> |
> |     AC> For those who don't follow Ubuntu development carefully,
> |     AC> the first Beta for the next Ubuntu was recently
> |     AC> released, so I took my home system and upgraded to help
> |     AC> out with filing bugs, etc.
> |
> |     AC> Just to be clear, I am not looking for help with the
> |     AC> upgrade process. I've had R, and a few miscellaneous
> |     AC> CRAN packages installed on this computer for years.
> |     AC> Today, when I loaded an R session I had developed before
> |     AC> the upgrade, I saw something new in my R "welcome
> |     AC> message".
> |
> |     >>
> |     >> R version 2.9.2 (2009-08-24)
> |     >> Copyright (C) 2009 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
> |     >> ISBN 3-900051-07-0
> |     >>
> |     >> R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
> |     >> You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
> |     >> Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.
> |     >>
> |     >> R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
> |     >> Type 'contributors()' for more information and
> |     >> 'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.
> |     >>
> |     >>
> |     >> This is REvolution R version 3.0.0:
> |     >> the optimized distribution of R from REvolution Computing.
> |     >> REvolution R enhancements Copyright (C) REvolution Computing, Inc.
> |     >>
> |     >> Checking for REvolution MKL:
> |     >> - REvolution R enhancements not installed.
> |     >> For improved performance and other extensions: apt-get install revolution-r
> |
> |     AC> The last part, about this being the "enhanced" version of R was . . .
> |     AC> unexpected.  I have heard of this company before and now I've spent some time
> |     AC> on their website. Looking at my installation, Ubuntu did not install any of
> |     AC> the REvolution Computing components, although R now basically thows a warning
> |     AC> every time I start it.
> |
> |     AC> My question(s) for the community is this (pick any question(s) you like to
> |     AC> answer:
> |     AC>   Should I install the REvolution Computing packages?
> |     AC>   Do these packages really make R faster?
> |     AC>   Are these packages stable?
> |     AC>   What are your experiences with REvolution Computing software?
> |
> |     AC> I am interested in hearing from members of the community, REvolution Computing
> |     AC> employees/supporters (although please ID yourself as such) and most anyone
> |     AC> else. I can see what they say on their website, but I'm interested in getting
> |     AC> other opinions too.
> |
> |     AC> Thanks!
> |
> |     AC> ______________________________________________
> |     AC> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> |     AC> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> |     AC> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> |     AC> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> |
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