[R] Alpha version

[Mark Hansel]

I am new to R, so please be patient. Most of my experience with
interpreted statistical languages is with SPSS and SAS. I have extensive
fortran experience. I have printed and read the R manual.

I compiled 0.63.3 on an alpha-linux (LX board, Linux is RH 5.1) and have
had difficult. The configure script recognized the architecture and
compiled/linked the sources with less trouble than I had on a Intel
machine (where I had to change optimizations for gcc).

First, the latest "official" release is 61.something. What is 63.3? Do
version number convey information beyond sequence/major-minor releases?

Second, on Intel, I cannot use destructive erase (backspace or ^H). I am
running this in an xterm and have not tried an emacs shell. No such
trouble on the alpha platform. Is this an ncurses version problem? If so,
what version do I need. Is it a terminal emulation problem? If so, is
there a spot in the configure.in file to set this --in the Makefile?

With my typing, I need the destructive backspace. Hence, the next point
applies to the alpha platform only.

Third, the failures I am getting on the alpha occur trying to plot fortran
generated x,y coordinates that are read from file (along with 30 some
other measures) with Dat <- table.read(). I have extracted the relevant
measures to what I thought would be vectors with x <-
Dat[correct_subscript], y <- Dat[sub]. (Dumping x and y looks correct,
though data values have quotes -- it looks like strings of digits rather
than floating point numbers?) Plot(x,y) give "unable to coerce to vector
14(?)" (paraphrase).

cor(x,y) returns the same error.

The example session in the manual appendix works and the demos work.

In contrast, generating x and y in other ways (x<-c(...), x<-seq(..) and
feeding them to functions that assume vectors works.

Thank you for any help.

Mark Hansel
PO Box 41
Moorhead State University
Moorhead, MN 56563
ph: 218-236-2039 fax: 218-236-2593
email: hansel at mhd1.moorhead.msus.edu


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