[rkward-cvs] SF.net SVN: rkward:[3576] branches/jss_dec_10/FINAL_JSS_TEX/FINAL_splitted/ installing_starting_RKWard.tex

Thu May 19 15:12:06 UTC 2011

Revision: 3576
          http://rkward.svn.sourceforge.net/rkward/?rev=3576&view=rev
Author:   tfry
Date:     2011-05-19 15:12:06 +0000 (Thu, 19 May 2011)

Log Message:
-----------
Elaborate on the installation process

Modified Paths:
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    branches/jss_dec_10/FINAL_JSS_TEX/FINAL_splitted/installing_starting_RKWard.tex

Modified: branches/jss_dec_10/FINAL_JSS_TEX/FINAL_splitted/installing_starting_RKWard.tex
===================================================================

--- branches/jss_dec_10/FINAL_JSS_TEX/FINAL_splitted/installing_starting_RKWard.tex	2011-05-18 20:34:53 UTC (rev 3575)
+++ branches/jss_dec_10/FINAL_JSS_TEX/FINAL_splitted/installing_starting_RKWard.tex	2011-05-19 15:12:06 UTC (rev 3576)
@@ -1,19 +1,46 @@
-\section[Installing and starting RKWard]{Installing and starting \pkg{RKWard}}
+\section{Installation and platform availability}
 \label{sec:installing_starting_RKWard}
-\pkg{RKWard} can be downloaded free of charge in source and binary form from \url{http://rkward.sourceforge.net/}. 
-On the GNU/Linux platform, binary packages are available for many major distributions,
-including Debian, Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Gentoo, and Fedora. On the Microsoft Windows
-platform, \pkg{RKWard} is available in two forms: as a single binary
-installer (requires existing installations of
-\proglang{R} and \pkg{KDE}) and
-as an installation bundle (including \proglang{R} and
-essential parts of the \pkg{KDE} runtime environment)\footnote{For detailed information please refer to the 
-\pkg{RKWard} wiki \url{http://p.sf.net/rkward/windows}.}. At the time of
-this writing, the developers lack the resources to support a Mac OS X
-port, and especially to provide binaries for Mac OS X. However, \pkg{RKWard}
-has been shown to be compilable and installable on the Mac, and appears
-to be mostly functional.
+Contrary to some other \proglang{R} GUIs, such as \pkg{Rcmdr}, \pkg{RKWard} cannot be installed and started as a
+regular \proglang{R} add-on package. Rather, it is started as a stand-alone application which embeds the
+\proglang{R} engine, and needs to be installed in a platform dependent way, as detailed, below\footnote{
+  See http://p.sf.net/rkward/download for an overview and platform specific download links.
+}. Besides the
+\pkg{KDE} runtime environment and \proglang{R}, \pkg{RKWard} utilizes a growing number of \pkg{R} add-on packages.
+However, these do not have to be installed before hand. Rather \pkg{RKWard} will prompt the user to install
+missing packages, interactively, on an as-needed basis (see Section~\ref{sec:package_management}).
 
+\subsection{Installation on the GNU/Linux platform}
+Historically, \pkg{RKWard} originates on the GNU/Linux platform, and binary packages are available for many major
+distributions, including Debian, Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Gentoo, Fedora, and also FreeBSD. On systems which
+provide up-to-date packages of \proglang{R} and \pkg{KDE}, compilation from source is generally unproblematic\footnote{
+  See http://p.sf.net/rkward/compilling for details.
+}. The exact size of the installation is system dependent. On Debian x86, the package is currently around 1.5 MB (Megabyte) compressed,
+and 5.5MB uncompressed. However, if the \pkg{KDE} runtime environment is not yet installed, an installation of \pkg{RKWard} may
+need several hundred MB of disc space.
+
+\subsection{Installation on Microsoft Windows}
+\pkg{RKWard} can be used on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Vista, and Windows 7. Source installation on the
+Microsoft Windows platform is comparatively difficult, since various tools need to be installed\footnote{
+  See http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/rkward/index.php?title=RKWard_on_Windows/Packaging for details.
+}, however, 32bit binaries are also provided by the project. The user has a choice between an small installer (1.7 MB),
+which can be used to install \pkg{RKWard} to pre-existing installations of \proglang{R} and \pkg{KDE}, and a installation
+bundle, which includes \pkg{RKWard}, \proglang{R}, and \pkg{KDE}. This bundle can be unpacked to any user-writable folder,
+and can be run without any further steps of installation. Using this method of installation,
+\pkg{RKWard} can also be installed to a removable storage medium, and moved between different systems (configuration
+settings are stored in the user's home directory, and will not be shared across systems, unless the user takes further steps).
+The size of the current installation bundle is 132 MB compressed, and around 670 MB installed.
+
+\subsection{Installation on Mac OS X}
+At the time of this writing, the developers lack the resources to support a Mac OS X port, and especially
+to provide binaries for Mac OS X. \pkg{RKWard} has been successfully compiled and installed on the Mac, and
+appeared to be mostly functional, but there have also been unresolved reports of failure to compile or to start
+\pkg{RKWard} on Mac OS X. Since \pkg{KDE} project does not currently offer binaries for Mac OS X, installation
+of \pkg{RKWard} also requires compilation of the \pkg{KDE} runtime environment, and its dependencies from source,
+which takes many hours to complete on current systems. Further, \pkg{RKWard}'s grapics device window related features
+(see Section~\ref{sec:plot_previews}) are only available when compiling and using \pkg{KDE} and \pkg{RKWard} in
+\pkg{X11} mode. In conclusion, \pkg{RKWard} on Mac OS X cannot currently be considered ready for regular users.
+
+\subsection[Starting RKWard]{Starting \pkg{RKWard}}
 \pkg{RKWard} cannot be loaded from within an \proglang{R}
 session, but rather it is started as a stand-alone application with an
 embedded \proglang{R} engine. To facilitate the first


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