[Rd] example package for devel newcomers

Tue Aug 2 16:32:22 CEST 2011

.. also note that there is Rserve PHP client (used, e.g., by FastRWeb) which works around a lot of the issues you encounter when you try to embed R into PHP (initialization cost, lack of thread-safety, no workspace separation etc.).

Cheers,
Simon

On Aug 2, 2011, at 10:11 AM, Daniel Fuka wrote:

> Howdy again Alexandre,
> 
> This sounds interesting and valuable, though might be touching some
> areas of R that makes me think others should chime in. I have a
> history of encouraging behavior that is sometimes not supported by the
> general public. First search does not find a project currently trying
> to accomplish what you are trying to do, though someone else might
> know of a similar project.
> 
> Now that I have absolved myself of responsibility {: -)  . I think
> this would be kind of kewl/useful. But, I wonder if it might actually
> be easier to embed one of the well tested and secured mini-apache web
> servers into R, which would accomplish much of what you want to do,
> and I think remove several of the questions you have. It does destroy
> the "any WCMS" desire you have in a), but I think that it accomplishes
> b,c,d,f, with the ability to develop out e as you interface the 2. It
> also might be an easier first package type project, which will get you
> used to the development environment, and it can support all OS's out
> of the box.
> 
> I played with http://appwebserver.org/ this morning, and think you
> might be able to frame a simple package, and do not see any major
> issues in porting/wrapper'ing it yet in the first 15 minutes of
> playing with it.
> 
> Could others please chime in and bail me out or shoot me down, which
> ever is best?
> 
> Enjoy,
> dan
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 2:01 AM, Alexandre Aguiar
> <asaguiar at spsconsultoria.com> wrote:
>> Em Segunda 01 Agosto 2011, você escreveu:
>>> Is there a preferred language you would like to use in your package
>>> development? I randomly downloaded packages until I found some that
>>> helped me along my way, and might be able to help you pick one. If you
>>> are just looking at building a package of R functions and data you
>>> have developed, possibly the following example will get you started
>>> till you feel comfortable with the "Writing R Extensions"
>>> documentation (http://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/R-exts.pdf):
>> 
>> Dan, your message is cool. Well, here is what my project is about: it is a
>> package to embed php into R. Named Rphp for now. It is mostly done from
>> scratch. I have loved R-exts.pdf. Great stuff.
>> 
>> Why embed php into R? My primary purpose is to use web content management
>> systems (WCMS) ready and extensively tested code from R cgi scripts.
>> Someone more experienced with php might think of other uses. My approach
>> is RAD(ical) and innovative (IMextremelyHO :-D) because:
>> a) *any* php based WCMS can be used from R code with no php or html
>> coding;
>> b) output fully compliant with the website appearance;
>> c) WCMS automatic upgrades and interfaces changes (skins or themes) will
>> be so unlikey to cause need for maintenance in R cgi scripts;
>> d) R cgi scripts will not demand changes in php code;
>> e) the builtin php session support obviates the need for any special
>> session coding by R (likely non-web) programmers;
>> f) potential for improved analysis of web databases and even of systems
>> surveillance tasks.
>> 
>> During my explorations of the R interface for extensions and the time
>> spent in this tiny project, some questions emerged.
>> 
>> 1. my code uses no recursion but I do not really know what is inside php
>> code. Stack size could be a concern. Has any of you there ever needed to
>> allocate a new stack for a package? Is it better to wait for complaints
>> (if anyone ever would like to try this package...)?
>> 
>> 2. can R_registerRoutines be called more than once within the same library
>> (the same DllInfo data) so that it can reconfigure itself on the fly?
>> 
>> 3. Is it safe (I guess it is) to "re-export" a function pointer retrieved
>> with R_GetCCallable?
>> 
>> 4. when loading a second library (in this case libphp5.so) is it better to
>> put it in the package library directory and load it using the 'char
>> *path' member of DllInfo? Using a second library has implications:
>> a) a given R setup can be limited to the user space without root access;
>> b) in the case of desktops where someone might use Rphp, most systems do
>> not have libphp5.so installed by default and installing it frequently
>> means to install apache and all (many) related packages;
>> c) many sysadmins do not have root access but can compile their own php
>> version;
>> d) building the libphp5.so may not be an easy task for many.
>> 
>> 5. Similar to 3, is it safe to "export" functions of the second library?
>> libphp5.so will not be registered to R and has some interesting functions
>> that can be "exported" directly or as pointers within Rphp library. A
>> stub function can be used.
>> 
>> 6. related to 4, with the many machine architectures and operating systems
>> around I think it is neither desirable nor feasible to distribute
>> precompiled libphp5.so versions; the package itself can download (wget
>> and curl are everywhere) and compile php. Compiling php is not a lengthy
>> task (6m12.9s in my quadcore desktop) but is a lot tricky and demands
>> several development packages not installed by default in desktop systems.
>> Their installations would require root access. What is the suggested
>> approach to deploy libphp5.so?
>> 
>> 7. I do not know how to produce a version for windows if requested. I have
>> only an old MSC++ 97 and lcc (current) and have xp in a virtual box. This
>> concern includes php. Can I get help regarding windows in this list? It
>> might mean actual work: adapting code, compiling, packaging, etc. Not
>> sure what is needed.
>> 
>> 8. system safety does not seem a concern regarding this use of php, but...
>> Any suggestions?
>> 
>> I guess some manual steps will be necessary because of potential security
>> breaches related to the use of a second library. Patching php to produce
>> a special build to be used as the package library would not be a trivial
>> task and would demand updates at every new php version. Something I can't
>> assure I can do. And would have to distribute the whole php source code:
>> still have to study php licensing scheme.
>> 
>> BTW, I copied Rdynpriv.h by hand to my include path to get access
>> to 'struct _DllInfo' definition. The R install process did not copy this
>> file. Am I doing something wrong here?
>> 
>> Sorry for the lengthy message. Thanx for your help.
>> 
>> --
>> 
>> 
>> Alexandre
>> 
>> --
>> Alexandre Santos Aguiar, MD, SCT
>> 
>> ______________________________________________
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>> 
>> 
> 
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