[R-sig-Geo] R-spatial packages with external software requirements

[Roger Bivand]

Following the last few days' posts on this list on building rgdal from 
source on macOS, I'd like to draw attention to OSGeo initiatives:

https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/SAC_Shared_Building_Services

and this discussion issue:

https://github.com/r-spatial/discuss/issues/37#issuecomment-640265943

based on a grass-dev thread:

https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-dev/2020-June/094453.html

Please join the discussion here and on the r-spatial discussion issue 
if you use github. Please also follow up the grass-dev thread with regard 
to CI. Following the OSGeo shared building services initiative may help 
those installing from source on Windows and macOS. If we in addition can 
promote the provision of reliable static-linkable components, we could 
perhaps reduce the burden on CRAN, especially if CI could check CRAN 
compatability of build trains (compiler versions etc.).

We would have more leverage if r-spatial in some form became a project 
associated with OSGeo as well as R itself, as mentioned in the discussion 
issue.

If a list member has edit access to the OSGeo wiki, please add text about 
r-spatial, for example to "Current State":

R Windows binary packages distributed by the Comprehensive R Archive 
Network (CRAN) using OSGeo software (chiefly PROJ, GDAL and GEOS) use 
custom built binaries compatible with the build train used by R and are 
static linked; at present both 32-bit and 64-bit binaries are deployed. 
CRAN packages for macOS are also static linked to custom built binaries, 
again using the build train used by R. Static linkage is used to avoid 
having to deploy a package manager for external software on which R 
packages depend, since CRAN as a package manager already supports over 
15000 packages with three binary versions (devel, release, old release) 
for Windows and macOS.

Please report back here if you are able to enter this text or similar, or 
are in touch with the site admin.

Contributions very welcome!

Roger

-- 
Roger Bivand
Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics,
Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen, Norway.
voice: +47 55 95 93 55; e-mail: Roger.Bivand using nhh.no
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2392-6140
https://scholar.google.no/citations?user=AWeghB0AAAAJ&hl=en