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

[denis brion]

I quite agree that , in a tolerant world, 
*****
Windows (just reread the thread)
*****
comparisons do not arouse reactions (did they???)
.....
But why is the evocation of Centos 5.5 (released this year) or Mandriva 10.1 RC2 (the final release was yesterday) treated as "old"/"unnamed"???


And, in both these distributions (which are(resp  likely will be : else, why RCs are tested?)  used for work), R should be compiled from sources -and dependencies , too : they are too sparse);;;

two lines of scripts instead of 100000 lines of nitpicking or the infamous 1600$ argument (I remember.....!)
But are we in a fair, tolerant world ????




--- En date de : Dim 11.7.10, Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd at debian.org> a écrit :

> De: Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd at debian.org>
> Objet: Re: [R-sig-Debian] "Graphics history" in UNIX --> "R" in Ubuntu for students in applied sciences
> À: "denis brion" <dbrion1 at yahoo.fr>
> Cc: scotti at uniss.it, r-sig-debian at r-project.org
> Date: Dimanche 11 juillet 2010, 16h54
> 
> 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
>