[R] Cross Compiling

[Scott Hyde]

Hello All,

I have a Linux computer and do all of my work from it.  However, I
teach also, which means that many of my students use windows.   Hence,
I need to create packages that work under windows as well as Linux.  I
have tried to follow the directions at

http://cran.r-project.org/doc/contrib/cross-build.pdf

which is the document "Building Microsoft Windows Versions of R and R
packages under Intel Linux".  This has been very helpful.  However,
the file R_Tcl.zip is no longer available, so I cannot compile R for
Windows using the "make R" command as described in the document.  Is
it necessary to have the Tcl sources in there?  If it is, how should
the directions be modified to enable the complete compilation of R?

None of my code contains C, Fortran, or any other language.  It is
just plain R code.  I would think that this would be easier to convert
over.  Is it?  I tried the following and it seems to work, but I'd
like to know if it is safe.

1.  Build package with "pre-compiled binary package" option "R CMD
build --binary pkgname"
2. convert the resulting tar.gz file to a zip archive.
3. Install it on a windows machine.

This process successfully works when I install it on a windows
machine, but I have no idea how safe it is.

-- 
*****************************************************************
Scott K. Hyde
Assistant Professor of Statistics and Mathematics
School of Computing
Brigham Young University -- Hawaii