[R-SIG-Mac] install.packages default type change?

[Bill Northcott]

On 24/07/2005, at 12:35 AM, Thomas Adams wrote:
> A couple points:
>
> (1) I'd be happy to use package binaries only, but the problem is  
> that not all packages that I might want to use are available as  
> binaries;

Quite so, but bundling everything that is not part of Apple's MacOS X  
distribution into the binary framework makes building source packages  
easier not more difficult.
>
> (2) there exists a range of competencies in the Mac OS X world,  
> just as there are in the UNIX & Linux worlds; it is not a matter of  
> there being specialists with detailed knowledge of all the  
> intricacies of R and building R, etc. (or whatever) and everyone  
> else (Grandmas)

Again this is my point.  As many source packages as possible should  
build with the binary R distribution without the users needing to  
understand the process.
>
> (3) many people, such as myself, operate in different computer  
> worlds virtually simultaneously. On Mac OS X one of the major  
> drawing points is that on a single machine I can do my Mac stuff  
> and 'Linux/UNIX' stuff where certain interactions between software  
> are desired and needed. I often process a lot of data files using R  
> and GRASS GIS together, so I have written Perl/shell scripts to aid  
> me. I would not be limited in ways that I could no longer do this.

I don't see this.   Nothing I suggested would stop you writing  
scripts.  MacOS X Tiger comes complete with Perl, Python and Tcl/Tk,  
but the only things installed under /usr are minimal wrappers or  
symlinks that invoke code in Frameworks or other subdirectories of / 
System/Library.  Indeed the only thing that a binary install of R  
puts under /usr is a single  symlink into the framework.

Bill Northcott