[R-sig-Geo] R-sig-Geo Digest, Vol 88, Issue 23

[Ralf Schäfer]

> Many thanks for your clarifications, Ralf.
> But if
>> Actually the 4 options more or less boil down to two if you check what is done in detail:
> .../...
> 
> then  we are just discarding alternative 1 in my first post:
> "> setRepositories(ind=1:2)
>> install.packages('rgdal')

Well, if the normal repository binary works, then there is no problem in the first place.
And I probably commented based on the discussion with Daniel on the R-sig geo list yesterday and from experiences that often problems occur.
But indeed - option 1 is certainly to use CRAN repositories after installing GDAL framework before.

So, in my courses I usually show them first how to install the kyngchaos binaries and if that fails on some machines how to install from source - and was successful so far.

> Also, what about homebrew? is this not a good way to make this type of
> things easier on Macs?

Well, in the example it only installs the binaries from kyngchaos, so it is basically the same as option 2 just uses command line and requiring prior installation of a package manager (you need homebrew, Xcode, type some command in Mac terminal etc.)
But this is probably splitting hairs now.

> Finally, where you say
>> BTW: "Linux Techies"  should have no major probs with Mac, given that the Mac system commands are more or less the same as for Linux systems
> The problem is that most mac users I've had as students are not
> Techies on anything. Otherwise, Macs are wonderful machines.

Comment was more targeted on "Macs into the world and expecting techies with only Linux
> 
>>> (and a smidge of Windows) experience to fix them up."
and just wanted to state that for a Linux techie the Mac command line is not too difficult.

But you actually do not need Shell command line to install packages from source anyway - all tools can be installed as binaries and the package can be built from within R.

Anyway, have a good xmas
Ralf