[RsR] estimators based on random samples... - should be random

[Valentin Todorov]

> C++ complicates things slightly

you mean under R, not in general?

>and typically is a tad (10% ?) slower than C.

and assembler is even faster!

> R's C API is a C and not C++ API anyway.


> I think it's only worth using C++ for some kind of problems
> (e.g. when a class structure can make the program much more readable),

and this is almost always the case - a class structure makes a program 
always more readable

> and I doubt that the covMcd() or ltsReg() algorithms belong to
> this class.

not until they are translated 1-1 from Fortran. I doubt also that covMcd/Lts 
are readable at all now and I expect the readability to decrease (with much 
more than 10%) when converted authomatically to C.


>
>    ValenT> For all these I still have not found enough time.
>
>    ValenT> By the way my trials to download an f2c converter ended with 
> the download of
>    ValenT> a "Free download Manager"! and nothing more. I'll appreciate 
> some info.
>
> f2c  is from the Bell Labs -- AFAIK by some of the same people
> who invented C.  Good Linux distributions provide a package for
> it.

sorry, forgot to say that I was searching for windows package.

>Googling 'f2c' gives a good site (http://www.netlib/org/f2c)
> as first hit for me.

for me too, but this results in "Error 404 - Page not found"

> I've used it -- plus an extra perl script I wrote myself --
> many times in the past ten years; even parts of R itself were
> done using it.
>
> BTW, I thought of doing the conversion (for fast MCD & LTS)
>     myself, rather than you having to do it.
>
> Martin
>
>

Valentin