[GRASS-dev] R and GRASS integration

[Moritz Lennert]

On 04/01/16 10:28, Moritz Lennert wrote:
> On 03/01/16 23:54, Steven Pawley wrote:
>> Like many R-GRASS users, I have a collection of R scripts that
>> interact with GRASS to perform various workflows. I have debated
>> about converting these to Python using Rpy2, although this package
>> can be a difficult to install on all platforms and depends on
>> specific versions of R and Python. I noticed that Moritz Lennert
>> recently developed a GRASS add on which consists of simply writing
>> out the R commands to a temporary script for R to run.
>
> [...]
>>
>> Does this represent a desirable or even acceptable approach for
>> embedding R scripts into grass add ons, or is Rpy2 the 'official'
>> approach.
>
> I wouldn't consider my approach in any way official, but AFAIK, rpy2
> does not have any "official" status in GRASS either. In my particular
> case (v.class.mlR) this was a quick and dirty hack for a course I had to
> teach. The difficulty of getting rpy2 installed on the lab machines on
> short notice was one of the motivations not to use it. I also agree that
> dependency on rpy2 can be a nuisance and has caused me some headaches
> with other modules, before. However, the approach I used (and others
> have used before) is a bit unwieldy and makes maintaining such modules a
> bit of a pain.
>
> So, I'm curious to hear the opinions of others...

See [1] for a related issue.

Moritz

[1] https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/1290