From m@ech|er @end|ng |rom @t@t@m@th@ethz@ch  Sat Dec  7 12:17:09 2019
From: m@ech|er @end|ng |rom @t@t@m@th@ethz@ch (Martin Maechler)
Date: Sat, 7 Dec 2019 12:17:09 +0100
Subject: [Rd] long vector support
In-Reply-To: <CAC-MUvsRCK1tSzhPjc_YzkOye3inNp3m8rL=mDnqZUoCOsqveg@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAC-MUvsRCK1tSzhPjc_YzkOye3inNp3m8rL=mDnqZUoCOsqveg@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <24043.35381.634233.282740@stat.math.ethz.ch>

>>>>> Will L 
>>>>>     on Fri, 6 Dec 2019 16:02:59 -0500 writes:

    > All, At first glance, a recent commit to R-devel (
    > https://github.com/wch/r-source/commit/2c182014ecc8c2407a89092c9162d86046bd18da)
    > appears to be related to long vector support.

yes, for a very limited case, with a very nice minimal
reproducible example and proper R bug report, where the change
was very simple indeed , PR#17665, i.e.
    https://bugs.r-project.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=17665

    > But as
    > Henrik Bengtsson points out at
    > https://github.com/HenrikBengtsson/Wishlist-for-R/issues/97#issuecomment-562659134,
    > writeBin() still prohibits long vectors. Are there any
    > plans to add long vector support to R 4.0.0?

well.. there *is* a lot of long vector support in R 3.x.y
already.

Where there are gaps,
1) we have to be told about (i.e. it should be a case where
   people at least have stumbled about it) -- preferably with
   form PR in R's bugzilla,  see https://www.r-project.org/bugs.html
   
2) sometimes a fix takes quite a bit of time, and we would close
   the case much more quickly if people looked at the case in
   detail and found *how* to fix it.

   [For the Matrix package and the case of sparse matrices,
    I'd be very happy if a C-savvy R developer would start
    collaborating with me to get this (incl interface to SuiteSparse)]

In the present case, it may be that a change does not take much
effort; my first try seems to work already .. and may just a bit
more safeguarding ..

So thank you, Will, for the reminder!

Martin Maechler
ETH Zurich  and  R Core Team


    > x <- raw(2^31)
    > writeBin(x, con = nullfile())
    > # Error in writeBin(x, con = nullfile()) :
    > #  long vectors not supported yet: connections.c:4430

    > x <- raw(2^31)
    > con <- rawConnection(raw(0L), "w")
    > writeBin(raw(2^31), con = con)
    > # Error in writeBin(raw(2^31), con = con) :
    > #  long vectors not supported yet: connections.c:4430


    > Will

    > [[alternative HTML version deleted]]

    > ______________________________________________
    > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
    > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel



[Rd] long vector support
Martin Maechler