[R-gui] [Rd] R GUI considerations (was: R, Wine, and multi-threadedness)

[Thomas Friedrichsmeier]

> Is there a "simple" way (e.g. some socket based mechanism) to
> feed commands into R and retrieve the results of those commands?
> This would require that I program the sequence of commands I
> want to use (or a means to generate them) and then be able parse
> the resulting structure - I understand. But it would also allow
> separation of the computation, the "statistical reasoning", and
> the UI into (potentially) separate units which would not even
> need to be on the same machine to inter-operate.  If there is a
> reasonable way to do this, please tell me.

You're roughly describing, how things are done in rkward 
(http://rkward.sourceforge.net). R and GUI do not run on different machines, 
not even in different processes. They run in separate threads, however, and 
there's a high level of separation between the two. There are probably 
similar implementations, which can be reused more easily in new projects. 
However, if you want to have a look at one possible way to do it, this 
documentation may be useful to you:

Usage perspective/overview:
http://rkward.sourceforge.net/development/en/documentation/api/UsingTheInterfaceToR.html

Main low level interface:
http://rkward.sourceforge.net/development/en/documentation/api/classREmbedInternal.html

Regards
Thomas Friedrichsmeier