RCall.jl - how to handle R package dependencies?

[Palli]

There is now RSetup.jl, but apparently not yet registered (and I’m not sure where it is!):

[ANN] RSetup.jl: mini-R package manager for use with RCall

using RSetup setup_r_environment(["classInt"]) This single-function package will detect if the R environment includes the classInt library (or your choice of libraries) and, if needed, install it so that it is available for use with RCall. Not tested on Windows.

@pat-alt

Q1: Is there an elegant/preferred way to install R package dependencies on load?

[..]

Q2: Is relying on deps of other languages utter madness or feasible?

@technocrat, before this single function package is registered, maybe its function should just be added to RCall.jl? On Q2, in general I think it’s not madness (calling C code, or even better e.g. Rust, see GitHub - Taaitaaiger/jlrs: Julia bindings for Rust or calling to or from Python using PythonCall.jl), but for R, it’s not feasible if you want to distribute your programs without copyleft/GPL (that’s ok for many science/non-commercial stats users though):

Creating app with PackageCompiler.jl --> how to include R dependency?

I didn’t think RCall downloaded Julia for you, but I was mistaken, it does if you set R_HOME = “*”, using Conda. I’m not sure, that might still be at installation time, but since possible, could at least potentially be a runtime check. About R packages themselves, I think they are usually downloaded as source and compiled, and arguably could also be done at runtime (Julia could have C++_compiler_JLL…, maybe does already, to provide all needed infrastructure, it’s just would you want to wait fo…