[R] Rtools and things dependent on it

[David Winsemius]

On 2/23/24 16:28, Sorkin, John wrote:
> David,
> My apologies regarding the format of my email. I am replying using my 
> iPhone, and I can’t find a way to switch from what I suspect is html 
> to txt format.
> The link you sent told me that R tools allows compilation of code.


It's specifically designed to provide the code tools missing in Windows 
that would other wise have been provided by a typical Linux distro. More 
expansively, it allows compilation of code written in C and/or Fortran 
using the version that was used to build the matching R version and 
allows it to be called by the routines written in R that bind a package 
together.

> This is good to know, but beyond this important fact, the rest of the 
> material was close to unintelligible.

The phrase "the rest of the material" is not specific enough to offer 
more explanation. You should quote material that is beyond your 
understanding. You should only be reading the sections named:"Installing 
Rtools43" and "Building packages from source using Rtools43". I doubt 
that material further on would be relevant.

-- 

David

> I doubt this is the fault of the author, it is probably because I lack 
> some basic knowledge. Can you suggest some more basic material I can 
> read. Please note. I am not computer naive, I am simply missing basic 
> knowledge of the material discussed in the web page.
> Thank you,
> John
>> John David Sorkin M.D., Ph.D.
>> Professor of Medicine
>> Chief, Biostatistics and Informatics
>> University of Maryland School of Medicine Division of Gerontology and 
>> Geriatric Medicine
>> Baltimore VA Medical Center
>> 10 North Greene Street <x-apple-data-detectors://12>
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>> prior to faxing)
>
>> On Feb 23, 2024, at 7:01 PM, David Winsemius <dwinsemius using comcast.net> 
>> wrote:
>>
>> 
>> On 2/23/24 14:34, avi.e.gross using gmail.com wrote:
>>> This may be a dumb question and the answer may make me feel dumber.
>>>
>>> I have had trouble for years with R packages wanting Rtools on my 
>>> machine
>>> and not being able to use it. Many packages are fine as binaries are
>>> available. I have loaded Rtools and probably need to change my PATH or
>>> something.
>>
>>
>> I suppose making sure that whatever directory holds your Rtools code is
>> on your path would be a good idea. I wondered if there's an environment
>> variable that could be set, but reading the page on using Rtools did not
>> mention one until I got down to the section on building R from source
>> which is surely NOT what you want to do.. You should read the
>> information on installation and building packages from source.
>> https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcran.r-project.org%2Fbin%2Fwindows%2Fbase%2Fhowto-R-devel.html&data=05%7C02%7CJSorkin%40som.umaryland.edu%7C7000449b5bd74e1d6cbb08dc34cbcba8%7C717009a620de461a88940312a395cac9%7C0%7C0%7C638443297110517980%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2B1tC1ROo11Bj1dPg7Ho9lDcVfL31Y3mCYUYqwDcyKs4%3D&reserved=0 
>> which
>> includes this sentence:
>>
>> "It is recommended to use the defaults and install into|c:/rtools43|.
>> When done that way, Rtools43 may be used in the same R session which
>> installed it or which was started before Rtools43 was installed."
>>
>>>
>>> But I recently suggested to someone that they might want to use the 
>>> tabyl()
>>> function in the janitor package that I find helpful. I get a warning 
>>> when I
>>> install it about Rtools but it works fine. When they install it, it 
>>> fails. I
>>> assumed they would get it from CRAN the same way I did as we are 
>>> both using
>>> Windows and from within RSTUDIO.
>>>
>>> In the past, I have run into other packages I could not use and just 
>>> moved
>>> on but it seems like time to see if this global problem has a 
>>> work-around.
>>>
>>> And, in particular, I have the latest versions of both R and RSTUDIO 
>>> which
>>> can be a problem when other things are not as up-to-date.
>>>
>>> Or, maybe some people with R packages could be convinced to make 
>>> binaries
>>> available in the first place?
>>
>> Binaries are automatically produced by CRAN but perhaps you are trying
>> to install from some other source? It would help if you could be
>> specific about several missing pieces of information: Operating system,
>> R version, Rtools version, current location of Rtools, names of packages
>> and where they were obtained.
>>
>>
>> Regards and good luck;
>>
>> David (a.k.a IRTFM)
>>
>>> Avi
>>>
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