[R-SIG-Mac] download.file suggestion: if(OSX){ use curl}

[Timothy Bates]

Dear R mac users,

As services that enforce secure connections like https sftp proliferate, it would be nice if R could handle accessing files over the secure services.

Currently download.file() doesn’t handle https (or anything secure)

The special interest for Mac users is that we have <curl> out of the box. 

I wonder if the download.file() function could be special cased for our platforms that have curl on board and use that?

best wishes,
tim


Wikipedia snippet of the day: 
In 1861, income tax was reduced to ninepence; in 1863 to sevenpence; in 1864 to fivepence; and in 1865 to fourpence. Gladstone believed that government was extravagant and wasteful with taxpayers' money and so sought to let money "fructify in the pockets of the people" by keeping taxation levels down through "peace and retrenchment".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ewart_Gladstone