From saikat at stat.wisc.edu  Thu Sep 11 15:38:15 2003
From: saikat at stat.wisc.edu (Saikat DebRoy)
Date: Thu Sep 11 20:37:09 2003
Subject: [Rd] New package in Bioconductor: externalVector
Message-ID: <1B2FE6B9-E487-11D7-8A67-0003931A3C9E@stat.wisc.edu>

The externalVector package implements a class of objects that behaves 
like R vectors but are stored in an outside resource. All the 
operations are defined in terms of a small number of primitive 
operations. To use a new type of external resource for storing the 
objects, a subclass of externalStorage needs to be defined along with 
some C level primitives.

One such subclass of externalStorage is part of the externalVector 
package.
It is called simpleStorage and it uses R garbage collected memory to 
store the objects.

At present the package has very little documentation. The README file 
provides (I hope) enough clues to get you started. There is a TODO file 
that describes the outstanding issues. One of the more important things 
there is the list of generics for which we should have externalVector 
methods but we don't. Any suggestions for additions to the list is 
welcome as are any bug reports and incompatibility with R vector/matrix 
objects.

Thanks,
Saikat


[Rd] New package in Bioconductor: externalVector
Saikat DebRoy