On Fri, 19 Jan 2007, Kimpel, Mark William wrote: > Thanks to all for your excellent suggestions. I think will I proceed > working through the Stroustrup book. He has a section on comparing C > with C++ and one on working with legacy C code that may prove helpful. I > also have a "C for Dummies" (something like that, I don't have it right > next to me) that I have also been reading. A couple of follow-up > questions:
C with data abstraction (C with Classes) is where C++ came from (that is a hybrid of Simula and C). Clean C is very portable, whereas C++ can get caught by name mangling between compiler versions. Arguably (certainly in cost and probably in elegance) a good deal can still be harvested from another young adult (20+ might be seen as IT archeology by some?) - SICP is online at: http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html and is excellent on programming in general, just Chapter 1 is refreshing to (re)read every now and then. Kernighan and Pike's "The Practice of Programming" - simplicity, clarity, generality - is also good for one's common sense. > > 1. As I understand it, if I just wanted to distribute compiled code, I > could use whatever extended C or C++ libraries that I wanted to use, > however, since R is open source and people need to be able to compile > things themselves, I imagine I would get into trouble (figuratively) > using, say, the C++ STL. Would I need to distribute these files as well? > For example, iostream instead of stdio.h. Or, should I just not use > those? Very few things are as standardised as they claim. I/O should not be done other than through R (like memory management where possible), so reducing the number of things that can go wrong (on some platform). > > 2. For those of you who develop C on Windows (probably a small bunch!), > what is your preferred development environment? I have the free Borland > Turbo C++ and Visual C++ 6.0 (I knew enough to stay away from .NET). I > tried to install the C++ module for Eclipse and, for me at least, it was > a nightmare. I am not UNIX or DOS savvy and setting path variables and > the like just made things too complicated. Just MinGW like R, following the guides to the letter gets you there like marked stones across a marsh. Leaving the path usually gets you at best neck deep in the mire, alternatively just bubbles. The existing code in both base R and the contributed packages is a good guide, but prototyping in R alone, and profiling to see where things take time before implementing in a compiled language, is often prudent. > > 3. Lastly, is there a C or C++ community similar to R that I could > address questions relating to those languages to? I don't want to abuse > the R list as I learn. > > Thanks, > Mark > > Mark W. Kimpel MD > > > > (317) 490-5129 Work, & Mobile > > > > (317) 663-0513 Home (no voice mail please) > > 1-(317)-536-2730 FAX > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > -- Roger Bivand Economic Geography Section, Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen, Norway. voice: +47 55 95 93 55; fax +47 55 95 95 43 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
