[R] Can one get a list of recommended packages?

[Dr. David Kirkby]

On 06/12/10 03:31 PM, Tal Galili wrote:
> Hello David,
>
> I am not sure I understood your question.

Sorry, perhaps I should have rephrased it better.

> Are you asking what are the packages that the R release comes with?

Sort of. When R is configured, there is an option

   --with-recommended-packages
                           use/install recommended R packages [yes]
which defaults to yes. So I assume that installs some recommended, but not 
essential packages.

We are building R in Sage with no options, so various non-essential packages are 
building because that is the default, though some (Matrix being one of them), is 
not building on Solaris.

So when R is tested a failure occurs.

The build of R apppears to succeed, but a check shows some problems - see here


http://sage.math.washington.edu/home/mpatel/trac/8306/r-2.10.1.p2.log

What I'd like to find is a list of packages (like Matrix) which would be 
installed with a default installation of R, but are missing from my installation.

We would like something that can quickly check if it is built or not - we don't 
wish to run an extensive time-consuming test suite.

> Or are you asking what recommended packages one should have when installing
> R?  (There is a good list to start with
> here<http://stackoverflow.com/questions/54763/what-r-package-do-you-use-most>
> )

No,


> Also, are you asking how to not need to install new packages when upgrading
> R?

No

> (For that, you can have a look at a post I wrote on an alternative way for
> upgrading R on windows<http://www.r-statistics.com/2010/04/changing-your-r-upgrading-strategy-and-the-r-code-to-do-it-on-windows/>,
> which might give relevant ideas for your case as well)
>
>
> Best,
> Tal

Thank you.