From ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk  Wed Dec 20 11:12:37 2000
From: ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk (ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk)
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 12:12:37 +0100 (MET)
Subject: [Rd] syskern fails Rcmd check on Windows, gives incorrect information (PR#781)
Message-ID: <200012201112.MAA15286@pubhealth.ku.dk>

syskern (`Functions for writing code that is OS and R/S independent', an
amazing description given the reality) fails Rcmd check on Windows, and
also gives incorrect information where it does work.

There are already correct OS-independent functions for these purposes in
R.  It appears not to be needed to run the other three packages in the dse
bundle, but to be the only R package that deliberately does not work on
one of the major platforms.  I doubt if it works on Macs, either.  It
should not be in the main section of CRAN unless it does what it claims.
 
> example(global.assign)

glbl.s> date.parsed()
Error in eval.with.vis(expr, envir, enclos) : 
        couldn't find function "date.parsed"

It has not been implemented!

> example(system.call)

systm.> system.call("ls")
Error in system.call("ls") : system calls must be implemented for this operating system.

But they are:

> shell("ls -C")
#R.bug.report#       cvs-co               test1
DF.R                 jpegsrc.v6b.tar.gz   test2.emf
GSD2.EMF             libpng-1.0.8.tar.gz  test3.emf
R-1.2.0.tgz          library              test4.emf
R.bug.report         mri.dat              test5.emf
Rconsole             mydata               texinfo-4.0.tar.bz2
Rdist                packages             tools
TB                   rw1020               tools.zip
VR3sc                rw1021               winold.zip
addlibs              rw1030               zlib113.zip

> system("ls", intern=TRUE)
 [1] "#R.bug.report#"      "DF.R"                "GSD2.EMF"           
 [4] "R-1.2.0.tgz"         "R.bug.report"        "Rconsole"           
 [7] "Rdist"               "TB"                  "VR3sc"              
[10] "addlibs"             "cvs-co"              "jpegsrc.v6b.tar.gz" 
[13] "libpng-1.0.8.tar.gz" "library"             "mri.dat"            
[16] "mydata"              "packages"            "rw1020"             
[19] "rw1021"              "rw1030"              "test1"              
[22] "test2.emf"           "test3.emf"           "test4.emf"          
[25] "test5.emf"           "texinfo-4.0.tar.bz2" "tools"              
[28] "tools.zip"           "winold.zip"          "zlib113.zip"        

Of course, `ls' is OS-dependent, so should not be used as an example
in a purportedly OS-independent package.

> example(system.info)

systm.> system.info()
          _              
platform  i386-pc-mingw32
arch      x86            
os        Win32          
system    x86, Win32     
status                   
major     1              
minor     2              
year      2000           
month     12             
day       15             
language  R              
OSversion MS Windows 95  
OStype    MS Windows     

That is incorrect: see what bug.report gives below.  The heading looks
strange too.

> example(whoami)

whoami> whoami()
Error in whoami() : system calls must be implemented for this operating system.

They are:

> system("whoami", intern=T)
[1] "ripley"
> Sys.info()["user"]
    user 
"ripley" 


--please do not edit the information below--

Version:
 platform = i386-pc-mingw32
 arch = x86
 os = Win32
 system = x86, Win32
 status = 
 major = 1
 minor = 2.0
 year = 2000
 month = 12
 day = 15
 language = R

Windows NT 4.0 (build 1381) Service Pack 4

Search Path:
 .GlobalEnv, package:syskern, package:ctest, Autoloads, package:base

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272860 (secr)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595


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[Rd] syskern fails Rcmd check on Windows, gives incorrect information (PR#781)
ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk