On 4/25/2010 19:39:52, Tal Galili wrote:
*c) R core implementation ?!*
I hope I am not being rude (or jumping into any open doors) in asking this
but...
What do you think about implementing this strategy into the R basic
installation?
Tal,
As a general rule, I think R should make upgrading as easy and seamless
as possible. Upgrading strategies seem system-dependent, but we already
have to download system-specific versions for Windows, OS X, and Linux.
To me it appears that doing what you're doing on Windows could easily be
implemented on *nix based systems with shell scripts. So why not have
the appropriate scripts ask a few questions upon the first installation
of R (e.g., "Do you want to configure R with a "global" library for
packages to make future upgrading easier?") and at upgrade time ("Your
previous version of R has a "global" library; do you want the new
version to use it?). I'd even go so far as to have the shell script
automatically call an R script to run update.packages().
The point is that most users just want to upgrade, and the upgrade
procedure can and should (a) make this as seamless as possible and (b)
allow those who may want to run specialized versions of R opt out of the
automatic procedure.
Marsh Feldman
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