[R] Genuine relative paths with R

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 10/10/2018 5:31 PM, Olivier GIVAUDAN wrote:
> I do not want to use the terminal, just double clicks (i.e. the 
> simplest, automatic, non-manual way, without having to write a line / 
> command).
> Therefore everything should happen outside any terminal. The user won't 
> use a terminal.
> 
> I don't have a Mac and I'm not familiar with this OS, sorry.
> But I'm really surprised the click method gives different results than 
> on Linux and Windows.
> I know the click method worked both on Linux (Ubuntu latest version) and 
> Windows (10).
> 
> Yes, I executed my file from a terminal and got obviously the same 
> result as you (that's reassuring).
> 
> Come on guys, creating a package... It's like using a hammer to kill a 
> fly...

It's a simple operation to create a package in RStudio.  Not quite a 
single click, but just a few.

In plain R, it's just a little more work using package.skeleton().

Really, if you are distributing R code, you should do it in the standard 
way, not invent your own.

Duncan Murdoch

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *De :* Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan using gmail.com>
> *Envoyé :* mercredi 10 octobre 2018 20:54
> *À :* Olivier GIVAUDAN; Jeff Newmiller
> *Cc :* r-help using r-project.org
> *Objet :* Re: [R] Genuine relative paths with R
> On 10/10/2018 4:42 PM, Olivier GIVAUDAN wrote:
>> Why are you not simply double-clicking on 'TestPWD' and choosing to 
>> execute the file (don't add anything)?
>> Are you executing the file from a terminal?
> 
> Yes, I was executing the file from my terminal.  Otherwise I really have
> no idea what the "current directory" is in the Finder.   (I'm on a Mac.
> I just tried the click method; it printed my home directory, not the
> directory of the script.)
> 
> I don't know the name of your visual front end, but you are displaying
> the working directory that it sets when you click on TestPWD.  That will
> be different from the working directory that your user sees in the Terminal.
> 
> You can see what I saw if you run TestPWD from the Terminal.  It will
> print the current working directory, not the one where TestPWD happens
> to live.
> 
> If you want to do the same sort of thing in R, you could set up a script
> that calls R, and execute that in the way you executed TestPWD.  But in
> another message you said you aren't allowed to do that, so I think your
> best solution is the one offered by Bill Dunlap:  organize your files as
> an R package.  If you name your package "Olivier", then you can find all
> the files in it under the directory returned by
> 
>     system.file(".", package = "Olivier")
> 
> The package system is designed for R code, but you can put arbitrary
> files into a package:  just store them under the "inst" directory in
> your source.  When the package is installed, those files will be moved
> up one level, i.e.
> 
> Olivier/inst/foo
> 
> will become
> 
>     system.file("foo", package = "Olivier")
> 
> Duncan Murdoch