[R-gui] [ANN] New version of Rpad -- a web-based interface to R

[Short, Tom]

An updated version of Rpad (0.9.2) is available at:

http://www.rpad.org/Rpad/

Rpad pages are interactive workbook-type sheets based on
R. Rpad is an analysis package, a web-page designer, and a
gui designer all wrapped in one.

The main advance is that Rpad can be installed as an R
package and run locally without messing with a server. This
and other highlights are given below:

(*) Run Rpad from R -- The main advance is that you can use
it with your local installation of R. Install the Rpad package
then type:
  library(Rpad)
  Rpad()
The "local" version of Rpad uses a built-in web server to
serve the Rpad pages to a browser locally. The web server is
a mini-webserver implemented in Tcl and launched from within
R. With Tcl handling the communication with the browser, the
user can continue to use the command line. The main
advantages of the local version are:

  - Installation is easier.

  - You can use Rpad pages along with R at the command line
    or with another GUI like SciViews-R or R Commander.

  - It makes debugging and testing Rpad pages easier.

The disadvantage is that it's local only -- other's can't
access your Rpad pages.

A special thanks goes to Philippe Grosjean for this feature:
Philippe came up with the idea of using Tcl for a webserver
and helped get it into Rpad.

(*) R package -- Both the local version of Rpad and the
client-server version of Rpad are available as an R
package. Directions are given for server
configurations. I'll upload this to CRAN after more testing
and feedback from r-sig-gui.

(*) Windows support -- Both the local and the client-server
version now work better on ms-windows. Rpad defaults to
using the R's png device with the local version, so you
don't have to have ghostscript installed. The server version
has also been tested with apache, apache2, and IIS (with
documentation).

(*) Imagemaps -- The Rpad website has two new demos that
show off Barry Rowlingson's imagemap package that works well
with Rpad. With just a bit of javascript, it's possible to
make some nicely interactive graphics. See the following:

    http://www.rpad.org/Rpad/imagemap.Rpad
    http://www.rpad.org/Rpad/mapdemo.Rpad

(*) Reference cards -- Reference cards for both R/Rpad and
for R have been updated. Thanks to Rashid Nassar and others
for suggestions and corrections.

    http://www.rpad.org/Rpad/Rpad-refcard.pdf
    http://www.rpad.org/Rpad/R-refcard.pdf

(*) Debian -- The easiest way to install the server version
continues to be on Debian. Debian packages are available at
the Rpad homepage. Rpad has been tested most extensively
with Debian. Thanks to Dirk Eddelbuettel for help with
packaging. 

Please email me or post to r-sig-gui with feedback,
questions, or bugs.

- Tom

Tom Short 
EPRI Solutions, Inc.  

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