[Rd] Offer zip builds
If you go here: https://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu/bin/windows/base you see EXE installers for Windows. This contrasts with other programming languages that offer both an executable installer and ZIP files that can be extracted and run. For example Go: https://golang.org/dl and Nim: https://nim-lang.org/install_windows.html Python: https://python.org/downloads/release/python-373 and C#: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-core/2.2 PHP: https://windows.php.net/download Perl: http://strawberryperl.com/releases.html __ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
Re: [Rd] Offer zip builds
On Mon, Jun 3, 2019 at 4:11 PM Marc Schwartz wrote: > I have not tried it, but if that is the case here, you may be able to use the > normal R binary installer, but adjust the default install options when > prompted, allowing you to customize the install location and other parameters, > that may be suitable in the absence of Admin rights. > > Prior statements, not official, would suggest that R Core is not likely to > assist in providing official options for useRs to circumvent OS security > restrictions. Theres nothing nefarious here. It would allow people to use the R environment without running an installer. If someone is a new user they may want to try R out, and installers can be invasive as they commonly: - copy files to install dir - copy files to profile dir - set registry entries - set environment variables - set start menu entries and historically uninstallers have a bad record of reverting these changes. should not put this burden upon new users or even having them resort to virtual machine to avoid items above. having a ZIP file allows new users to run the R environment, then if they like it perhaps they can run the installer going forward. Are you familiar with Windows? As everything I am describing hasnt changed in at least 20 years. I dont have a criticism of the R installer, I have not run tests to be able to determine if its well behaved or not. Its the *not knowing* that is the issue. With Windows, every installer could be perceived as a "black box". __ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
Re: [Rd] Offer zip builds
On Mon, Jun 3, 2019 at 6:54 PM Marc Schwartz wrote: > I am on macOS primarily, albeit, I have run both Windows and Linux routinely > in years past. With all due respect, then you have no business in this thread. > That being said, these days, I do run Windows 10 under a Parallels VM on > macOS, as I have a single commercial application that I need to run for > clients now and then, and it sadly only runs on a real Windows install (e.g. > not with Wine). Further demonstrating my point. You run Windows in a virtual machine, meaning even if you encountered some bad installer, you could just revert to a snapshot or similar. > To your points: > > [bunch of links] I am sorry if I miscommunicated, I didnt and dont wish to be convinced about how well behaved R installer is. I wish for R to offer zip builds. Many other programming languages do: - http://strawberryperl.com/releases.html - https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-core/2.2 - https://golang.org/dl - https://nim-lang.org/install_windows.html - https://python.org/downloads/release/python-373 - https://windows.php.net/download As I see it, the question isnt "should R offer zip builds", its "why isnt R offering zip builds". > Unless you can make the case to them to expend the finite resources that they > have to support this as part of each version release process, in light of the > prior discussions, it is not clear that this appears to be a priority. Thats the point of my original post. If they choose to continue with only EXE, I will just keep using other programming languages. So you could see how it might be in R interest to offer this, as no zip builds might be one of the reasons people avoid the language. __ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
Re: [Rd] Offer zip builds
On Mon, Jun 3, 2019 at 8:04 PM Duncan Murdoch wrote: > I don't recall anyone asking for the zip in the 17 years after that > change, until now (though I haven't been paying attention lately, since > I retired from building the binaries a couple of years ago). > > If you think it's worthwhile to do it, then I don't think anyone would > object if you went ahead and did so. If I visited this page: https://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu/bin/windows/base and found Zip builds I would use those. Not only do those not exist, but the installer has been created in such a way that it cant even be extracted from. Just because you dont recall it, doesnt mean the demand isnt there. The R community isnt exactly reachable: > NOTE: due to abuse by spammers, since 2016-07-09 only “members” (including all > who have previously submitted bugs) can submit new bugs on R’s Bugzilla. For > now, either post (e-mail) your bug report to R-devel or ask an R Core member > to > add you manually to R’s Bugzilla members. http://r-project.org/bugs.html So bugs and feature requests cant even be posted to bugzilla. Then regarding the mailing list, even if subscribed you cant post, as all posts are moderated. Compare to other languages, where you just log in an post an issue: - https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues - https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/issues - https://github.com/dotnet/coreclr/issues - https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues - https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/issues - https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues If R team is happy with current status quo, then do nothing. If they are interested in growing the userbase this might be one way to do it. __ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
[Rd] Setting LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 failed
Using this in my "~/.profile": export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 Yields this: $ Rscript -e 'print(9)' During startup - Warning message: Setting LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 failed [1] 9 This is confusing as the exact same environment works fine with other languages: $ python3 -c 'print(9)' 9 $ ruby -e 'puts 9' 9 __ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
Re: [Rd] Offer zip builds
On Tue, Jun 4, 2019 at 11:06 AM Iñaki Ucar wrote: > FWIW, innoextract extracts the contents of the installer just fine. That is great, thank you very much: https://github.com/dscharrer/innoextract Between this thread and others I have interacted with 14 people, and you are the first person to post an actual solution rather than arguing. I still think zip builds should be offered, but this is a good workaround until then. Thanks again. __ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
