[R-SIG-Mac] Rserve, RJava, RMatlab

[Suresh Krishna]

Hello,

Since I have to switch from Windows to the Mac OS (10.6.4, Intel mac), I
have to find a new solution to call R from Matlab, since the R-(D)Com
solution no longer works. I found Rserve and RJava and successfully
installed them (after some googling to solve minor installation issues).

I am now going through existing Java code projects like RSession and R to
figure out how to issue the calling instructions from Matlab using its
Java interface.

In the meantime, I had 2 questions:

a) I superficially understand the basic difference between Rserve and
RJava (Rserve is a client-server interface while RJava is a JNI based
solution) and that Rserve allows one to maintain multiple R sessions. I
would be grateful if someone could expand on the advantages of JRI (RJava)
over Rserve, if any.

Also, in a single-user, single-computer (multi-core) scenario, is there
any advantage to being able to call multiple R sessions ?

b) I also came across the RMatlab project in OmegaHat. I didn't pursue it
much because the description on the web page, though it appears quite
powerful, also dates from 2004 or so. Also, I am afraid of Matlab MEX-file
compilation issues. Would someone be able to give me a comparison of
features/ease-of-use of RMatlab compared to RJava/Rserve.

Thanks much,

Suresh