[R-sig-Geo] RGDAL PROBLEM IN R-STUDIO

[Roger Bivand]

On Tue, 4 Dec 2012, Swagath wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Did you try this;
>
> setRepositories(ind=1:2)
> install.packages(‘rgdal’)
> library(rgdal)
>
> source: 
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7852679/trouble-loading-rgdal-in-rstudio

A splendid example of why stackoverflow is rarely the correct answer for 
anything. Not only is this "solution" deprecated in that OSX rgdal is now 
on CRAN, not CRAN Extras - so out of date by many months (that thread 
October 2011), but just googling and then quoting the stackoverflow 
"solution" misses the important point that the stackoverflow thread 
applied to:

Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin9.8.0/x86_64 (64-bit)

as you see if you read the beginning of the thread, whereas our questioner 
has:

/home/usuario/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/2.15/

(but did not state the output of sessionInfo(), so may actually not be 
running Linux, who knows?). The correct reply, given by Ashton, is the 
package external dependencies (SystemRequirements) must be installed 
before installing the rgdal source package. The thing anyone should do in 
such a situation is to visit the CRAN page of the package:

http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/rgdal/index.html

for pointers. The inst/README file included in the source package provides 
further guidance.

@RStudio: Probably RStudio should be more careful in permitting source 
installs for packages that declare SystemRequirements, and have 
./configure files.

Roger

PS. I really like Bruce Schreier's term "United States of Convenience" 
with regard to users' assumptions about the systems we offer:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/12/feudal_sec.html
http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/11/feudal-security/

In R, you have freedom, convenience is and should be an optional extra, 
expecially if it gets in the way "real work".

PPS. Navin didn't quote the thread, it is here:

https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-sig-geo/2012-December/016852.html

>
> cheers,
> Navin
>
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-- 
Roger Bivand
Department of Economics, NHH Norwegian School of Economics,
Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen, Norway.
voice: +47 55 95 93 55; fax +47 55 95 95 43
e-mail: Roger.Bivand at nhh.no