[R] R GUI question

[Michael Lawrence]

On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 12:56 PM, jeffreya <jeff_a_10487 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>  Hi.
>
>  I'm looking to create a user-friendly program built around some R methods
>  I've written. The program should be as easy to install and use as possible
>  and will be built around a GUI. This program will be cross-platform; that's
>  crucial.
>
>  I'm familiar with Java and its GUI packages, I've been looking at the JRI
>  package (interfaces R with Java) but I'm a little uneasy about asking my
>  users to go through its installation (necessitates mingw, among other
>  things, in Windows). Though, once installed, it could work very well.
>

rJava/JRI does not require mingw. It's just a matter of installing
Java (which many users have already) and the rJava package.

>  I have a little exposure to Tcl/TK. Though I'm not as big of a fan of this
>  as I am of Java, I could suck it up and use it, but I'm not sure that its
>  installation is a whole lot simpler?
>
>  What, in your experience, is the easiest way to accomplish something like
>  this?
>
>  To recapitulate, my criteria are:
>  1.) Easy installation
>  2.) Ease of use (GUI)
>  3.) Interface with functions written in R
>  4.) Cross-platform
>

I would suggest using the gWidgets package, an abstraction over RGtk2
(best supported by gWidgets but requires user to install the
cross-platform GTK+ library), tcltk and rJava/Swing. All the backends
are cross-platform and support callbacks into R. The user may choose
which backend to use. So if they want a slicker GUI they could install
GTK+ and RGtk2 or they could just use the built-in support for tcl/tk.

>  I'm willing to learn a new language (scripting or otherwise) if necessary.
>

gWidgets would only require you to know R.

>  Thanks so much.
>  --
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