[R-sig-Debian] "Graphics history" in UNIX --> "R" in Ubuntu for students in applied sciences

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

Denis,

On 11 July 2010 at 13:57, denis brion wrote:
[...]
| I do not think the solution B is very risky because :
| 
| * R's package building is one of the easiest in the GNU(linux : works under BSD and sometimes AIX, too) world. When I try a new distribution, the first thing I try is to build R from sources; if something is misssing, I try to build it, too ; after it, more complicated softwares can be tried (octave, scilab).
| 
| * If it is intended for students, may be they will be happy to know how to install from sources (having a Debian on their linux (if any) computers is not compulsory, is not it? )
| 
| * knowing how to make a package and how to document it may be interesting (I wrote professional packages for R{my boss wont GPL them!} , and writing documentation is very easy).
| 
| * There are about 1500 functions in R (without libraries); knowing 2 more functions | bash lines is not that tremendous; getting an idea of dependencies and how they are managed is useful if one wants to install/use  any GNU (and even Windows...) software .
| 
| * Most linux distribution (not weighted by  audience, I agree) do not have R supplied, nor its dependencies.... Others (I think of Centos and Mandriva) might have late versions of R, and one depends on the distribution's skills and avalaible time... instead of writing 2 bash lines/calling one R function!!!

May I ask to stop posting irrelevant stuff: this is r-sig-debian.

Hence it is not the place for conjectures about what may or or may not work
sometimes or not on unnamed other Linux distributions, or other / older Unix
variants.

Concrete, on-topic help with relevant details for Debian or Ubuntu will
always be appreciated.  But it may be preferable to do everything else
off-list.  

Thank you.

-- 
  Regards, Dirk