[R] Package Building under Windows with MikTeX 2.6

[Mark Hempelmann]

Dear WizaRds,

	I wrote a small function in R and would like to create a package. The 
necessary documentation is done, Rtools etc. are installed and I am 
still unable to complete the process under Windows. I did extensive 
research in the archives and read the Murdoch-Sutherland website on the 
Rtools and MikTeX hints. I realize that I understand only half or less 
of what is said there concerning the MikTeX-R interaction in creating 
packages. I am sorry.

	I also read the very helpful Rossi paper on 'Making R Packages under 
Windows. A Tutorial' as of 2006/01. I also tried to understand the .pdf 
on Writing R Extensions Version 2.5.1 (2007-09-04). Because of its 
condensed form it *might* present a true challenge to the uninitiated. I 
wish to apologize for not being able to comprehensively follow all of 
your "prescriptions", as pointed out in the manual: "This section 
contains a lot of prescriptive comments. They are here as a result of 
bitter experience. Please do not report problems to R-help unless you 
have followed all the prescriptions." Therefore, I hesitated long to 
report my problems, but since I spent long hours without any progress, I 
simply don't know anymore what to do. Is there anyone willing to help?

	I installed MikTex, Perl, htmlhelp, Rtools and WinEdt for editing 
purposes, and changed the path in the system environment as follows 
(Carriage return for readability):
System Path:
C:\Programme\Uni\Rtools\bin;
C:\Programme\Uni\Perl\bin;
C:\Programme\Uni\Rtools\MinGW\bin;
C:\Programme\Uni\hmtlhelp;
C:\Programme\Uni\R\bin;
C:\Programme\Uni\MikTeX\miktex\bin;
%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem

User Path (?what is this for?)
C:\Programme\Uni\MikTeX\miktex\bin

R Version: R version 2.5.1 Patched (2007-09-04 r42845)
Rtools Version: 2.6.0.1216
MikTeX 2.6

Directory Structure MikTeX, R, Rtools, WinEdt etc. (hierarchy with tabs):
C:\Uni\MikTeX
C:\Uni\R\
	bin
	doc
	etc
	include
	library
	modules
	share\
		licenses
		locale
		make
		perl\
			R
			Text
		R
		texmf
	src
	Tcl

C:\Uni\Rtools
C:\Uni\WinEdt
C:\Uni\Perl
C:\Uni\htmlhelp

I generated the minimal package structure for package mbes via 
skeleton(), consisting of
c:\RWork\mbes\
	man\mbes.Rd
	man\mbes.package.Rd
	R\mbes.R
	DESCRIPTION

and then in a MS DOS command window:
R CMD check mbes

which called forth the error:
Error message:
C:\RWork\mbes>R CMD check mbes
* checking for working latex ...Error: environment variable TMPDIR not 
set (or set to unusable value) and no default available.
  at C:\Programme\Uni\R\share\perl/R/Utils.pm line 73

	I looked at the path and Utils.pm shows:
...
### * R_tempfile
sub R_tempfile {
     my $pat = "Rutils";
     $pat = $_[0] if $_[0];
     R::Vars::error("TMPDIR");
     my $retval = file_path($R::Vars::TMPDIR,
                $pat . $$ . sprintf("%05d", rand(10**5)));

     my $n=0;
     while(-e $retval) { # was -f, but want to be able to create such a file
     $retval = file_path($R::Vars::TMPDIR,
                 $pat . $$ . sprintf("%05d", rand(10**5)));
     croak "Cannot find unused name for temporary file"
         if($n++ > 1000);
     }
     $retval;
}
### * R_system
sub R_system
{
     my ($cmd, $Renv) = @_;
     my $tmpf = R_tempfile();
     if($R::Vars::OSTYPE eq "windows") {
     open(tmpf, "> $tmpf")
       or die "Error: cannot write to '$tmpf'\n";
     print tmpf "$cmd $Renv\n";
     close tmpf;
     $res = system("sh $tmpf");
     unlink($tmpf);
     return $res;
     } else {
     return system("$Renv $cmd");
     }
}
...

I simply don't know what to do. I am very grateful for any help.
Thank you so much.
Yours
Mark