[R-sig-Geo] Linux or OS X on Macbook Pro Retina?

[Rainer M Krug]

Roger Bivand <Roger.Bivand at nhh.no> writes:

> On Wed, 19 Jun 2013, Rainer M Krug wrote:
>
>>
>> Barry Rowlingson <b.rowlingson at lancaster.ac.uk> writes:
>>
>>> On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 9:13 AM, Rainer M Krug <Rainer at krugs.de> wrote:
>>>> Hi
>>>>
>>>> I finally received my new computer - a Mac Powerbook Retina.
>>
>> Sorry - Macbook Pro Retina
>>
>>>>
>>>> I am a Linux / Ubuntu user, but I am thinking about possibly using OS
>>>> X. How does OS X play with these spatial applicatios, mainly R (and
>>>> associated packages), gdal, proj4, GRASS? Are there problems /
>>>> complications with using spgrass6 under OS X?
>>>>
>>>> Any experiences, things to be wary about?
>>>
>>>  Go back about two messages on this mailing list and I asked a similar
>>> question, only without a Mac to play on!
>>
>> True - I have seen that one. But apart from these, I am looking for some
>> more insight from actual users of OS X.
>
> Although I'm not an actual user, I think that it will be important to
> install GRASS and its dependencies first, then the R packages using
> those components (rgdal, rgeos, etc) from source, linking dynamically
> to the underlying dylibs, as one would typically do on Linux. One
> reason for this is to maintain consistency in the PROJ and GDAL
> metadata (things like EPSG), which differ for different versions of
> say PROJ. 

That makes sense - so to install e.g. rgdal, I would use

,----
| install.packages("rgdal, type="source")
`----

after before installing the dependencies. I will try it out by
installing the dependencies vie Macports, which makes it quite
easy.

Cheers,

Rainer


>Both GRASS and R developers often use OSX as Unix, but they
> expect to build more components from source where sensible.
>
> Roger
>
>>
>>>
>>>  Roger's answer is that for most people you can just do
>>> install.packages and get binary versions of those packages with static
>>> linking so all dependencies are resolved and there's no need to go
>>> hunting for source code and development packages.
>>
>> That is most definitely very useful.
>>
>>>
>>>  If you can try that and it all works, please let me know - I'm trying
>>> to write some instructions for new users for a workshop, and I guess
>>> it will be 60% windows, 35% mac, 5% linux...
>>
>> OK - I will see.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Rainer
>>
>>>
>>> Barry
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
Rainer M. Krug, PhD (Conservation Ecology, SUN), MSc (Conservation Biology, UCT), Dipl. Phys. (Germany)

Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology
Stellenbosch University
South Africa

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