[R-gui] Platform-independent GUI for R... again

[Philippe Grosjean]

Hello,

Following my two previous mails about Tinn-R and the R GUI API, I would like
to start a discussion about the best toolkit and language to use to
implement a GUI for R.

Indeed, I am long waiting something around wxWidgets... But this seems to be
further delayed:

1) I put much hope on the James Wettenhall's R-wxPython package. However,
despite its persistent attemps, it seems that there are still problems under
Linux. Moreover, James has now other priorities and the package is left in
an incomplete, experimental state,

2) Related to this, I put much hope to Boa Constructor as the IDE to build a
GUI using Python / wxWidgets for R... Unfortunatelly, wxPython changed a lot
from version 2.4 to 2.5... And Boa Constructor is still not running well
with wxPython 2.5 (latest version 0.3-1 tested),

3) I look closely to Rpy, which seems to work well (but it needs to be
recompiled for every R version, and it does not provide a solution by itself
neither for the graphical toolkit, nor for the IDE),

4) I am testing ActiveState Komodo, an excellent IDE for Perl/Tcl/Python
(but not free). The pro version provides a nice GUI builder, but it uses
only the Tk toolkit with a limited amount of extra widgets. This appears too
limited for my GUI. I need, at least, a powerful code editor like Scintilla,
and a reasonable HTML widget which support JavaScript and cascaded style
sheets.

5) Delphi/Kylix... This is a nice IDE (although not free), and it proves to
give efficient GUIs, at least under Windows (see Tinn-R, for instance!). I
don't like much this solution because it means for me to move from Microsoft
language/IDE (mainly Visual Basic in the current SciViews-R), to Borland
equivalent... If I have to rewrite everything, I would prefer to do it in a
GPL language/environment!

6) Java with Eclipse? Well, this is the JGR solution. I don't know Java and
have lot of problems with the SJava / Rjava interface (well, I hope this
will be solved in the future,... But for now?).

So, for now, I am still stuck with my Windows-only solution for a R GUI,
just because I do not have the full combination of a complete IDE with a
feature-rich-enough graphical toolkit and a flawless R communication with
it. All I can do, is to move as much code as possible into R... Hence, the
GUI API.

Any idea? Any suggestion?
Thanks,

Philippe Grosjean 

..............................................<°}))><........
 ) ) ) ) )
( ( ( ( (    Prof. Philippe Grosjean
 ) ) ) ) )
( ( ( ( (    Numerical Ecology of Aquatic Systems
 ) ) ) ) )   Mons-Hainaut University, Pentagone
( ( ( ( (    Academie Universitaire Wallonie-Bruxelles
 ) ) ) ) )   6, av du Champ de Mars, 7000 Mons, Belgium  
( ( ( ( (       
 ) ) ) ) )   phone: + 32.65.37.34.97, fax: + 32.65.37.33.12
( ( ( ( (    email: Philippe.Grosjean at umh.ac.be
 ) ) ) ) )      
( ( ( ( (    web:   http://www.umh.ac.be/~econum
 ) ) ) ) )
..............................................................