[R] R on 64-Bit…

[Prof Brian Ripley]

Let's not speculate when doing basic research is so easy.  I guess the 
thread about 64-bit Windows referred to was 
https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2010-January/056301.html
https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2010-January/056411.html
(note the update).

The CRAN daily check 
http://cran.r-project.org/web/checks/check_summary.html shows that 
106/2170 packages are currently giving errors, and 20 or so of those 
are available from CRANextras.  See 
http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows64/contrib/2.11/@ReadMe for more 
details.

Note that the x64 Windows builds are for the unreleased R pre-2.11.0: 
they will become more visible on CRAN once that is released.

For MacOS X: the CRAN build of 2.10.x for 10.5/6 includes the 64-bit 
x86_64 architecture, and many packages are available (about the same 
proportion as on x64 Windows).

For Unix-alikes (including Linux), 64-bit R has been available for 
about a decade and some of us have been running 64-bit R exclusively 
for years.  Again, the CRAN Daily Check page shows a high rate of 
success on x86_64 Linux.

Installation of packages without compiled code is done entirely in R 
and so is the same on any platform.  The difficulties in installing 
packages arise either with compiled code or with dependencies: for 
example as we do not yet have rgdal working on x64 Windows, none of 
the dozen or so packages which depend on it are available.


On Sun, 21 Feb 2010, Sharpie wrote:

>
>
> Axel Urbiz wrote:
>>
>> Dear R users,
>>
>> I know this issue came up in the list several times.  I?m currently
>> running
>> R on 32-bit on Windows and due to memory limitation problems would like to
>> move to a 64-bit environment.  I?m exploring my options and would
>> appreciate
>> your expertise:
>>
>> 1)      Windows 64-bit: Prof. Brian Ripley recently posted the
>> experimental
>> built of R for win 64-bit. I?ll appreciate any feedback on anyone who has
>> been testing this. He also mentioned that for now, ?...this as only being
>> of
>> interest for those who only use a few relatively simple packages?.  But if
>> one uses packages beyond those ?relatively simple?, how possible is today
>> to
>> have those installed?
>>
>
> As far as I know, the problems with running 64-bit R on windows are due to
> the lack of a well-developed, 64 bit minGW compiler.  Therefore I would
> imagine that the packages that may have trouble installing under the
> experimental 64 bit build are those that include either C or Fortran source
> code that needs to be compiled.  You may also find that you need to compile
> packages yourself-- prebuilt 64 bit versions for windows may not be
> available on CRAN.
>
>
>
> Axel Urbiz wrote:
>>
>> 2)      MacOS or Unix.  Sorry for my ignorance on this?but if I use any of
>> these environments on 64-bit and  installed R on any of those, this is all
>> I
>> need to have R working on 64-bit. How about installing specialized
>> packages?
>> Are the packages on the CRAN repositories ?ready tho use? on these systems
>> or do I have to do any additional work to get them going?
>>
>> Thanks in advance for your help!
>>
>> Axel.
>>
>
> MacOS/Unix/Linux shouldn't have a problem with running 64 bit R and building
> 64 bit R packages-- this is because the GNU project provides a very mature
> set of 64 bit compilers that these systems can use.  I personally use 64 bit
> R on Mac OS and have had no problems developing and installing packages for
> the 64 bit system.
>
> -Charlie
> -- 
> View this message in context: http://n4.nabble.com/R-on-64-Bit-tp1563895p1564056.html
> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
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-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595