[R-gui] Getting started on R GUIs

[Anthony Berno]

Hello all,
 
I'm working on a Microsoft .NET application in which is, in part, an R
front end. But I'm having a bit of difficulty getting started. I spent a
bit of time writing a package that communicates with the R executable
using text, but that was a disaster. Information about other methods has
been a little hard to come by.
 
I've used the R DCOM interface, and looked at the source code, but it's
a little obscure, and I"m having a hard time figuring out how it works
at all. I've successfully written a VB test app that uses this server,
but I'd rather not do all the .NET -> DCOM interoperability stuff if
there is a more direct, and possibly higher-performance route to
accessing R functionality.
 
So a few extremely basic questions:
 
- Is the file R.dll the DLL that is most suitable for letting my app
talk to R?
 
- Assuming this is the case, I can't figure out what the correct header
file is, or find any description of the entry points to this DLL. Some
introductory material would be very helpful!
 
And a few more general ones:
 
- Does the R engine necessarily run in a different process, or can it be
run in the same process as my app?
 
- What is the fastest possible way to get a large dataset (10 - 100K
rows) from an application front end into the R engine, and back out
again?
 
Thanks for any comments you might have.
 
-Anthony Berno
 
 
 

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