Technical Notes on the R programming language

by Sigal Blay

Index
Calling C code from R, an introduction
R Grapics using the Grid Package
snow Simplified
Inspecting R package documentation
Building R packages from source code under Windows

Calling C code from R, an introduction

The functions .C and .Call. provide a standard interface to compiled code that has been linked into R. These functions are explored in the following presentation.
Seven detailed code examples are provided.

Formats:
PowerPoint   Text file

R Graphics using the Grid Package

The grid package provides a low-level graphics system to produce reusable, editable graphical components.
Formats:
PowerPoint   Text file

snow Simplified

The 'snow' package provides a high-level interface for using a workstation cluster for parallel computations in R. Here is a friendly user guide.
Formats:
HTML   Text file

Inspecting R package documentation

(no need to check if all function arguments are documented or if a command below works - 'R CMD check' performs all these technichal tests automatically)
help(package=myPackge)   # display package DESCRIPTION file
                         # and list all functions and data sets in myPackage
help(function)           # display man/function.Rd file
example(function)        # run example in man/function.Rd
demo(package="myPackge") # list demos in package/demo
demo(demo_file)          # run demo/demo_file.R
data(package="myPackge") # list data files in package/data
help(data)               # display man/data.Rd
data(data)               # run data/data.R

Building R packages from source code under Windows

Choose a
CRAN mirror near you, and follow the "Download R for Windows" link to "Rtools".


With comments and suggestions please contact Sigal Blay (sblaysfu.ca).
This work has been made possible by the Statistical Genetics Working Group at the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SFU.