[STATSGRASS] Is R package GRASS for GRASS 5 needed for Windows?

[Roger Bivand]

NOTE: only applies to GRASS 5
-----------------------------

In upcoming R 2.4.0, Windows entry points for compression and storage of 
GRASS 5 rasters have been hidden - CHANGES reads:

"Entry points which are hidden in libR.so on Unix are now also hidden
in R.dll.  (Just over half the entry points are hidden, which speeds up
loading.)"

On Linux/Unix/OSX, ./configure finds and uses external libraries for xdr 
and zlib, but on Windows the GRASS package had used the fact that the 
R.dll had open entry points for xdr and zlib. These are now hidden, so 
the GRASS package will not build for Windows for the new release due in 
early October 2006.

Is this a problem for anyone? It can be got round by including local
copies of the library sources from the R source tree, but if there are no
users of the GRASS interface package on Windows who are planning to
upgrade to R >= 2.4, I would prefer simply to retire the Windows port.

If you use GRASS 5 on Windows with the GRASS R interface package, and are
planning to upgrade to R >= 2.4, please let me know.

Roger

-- 
Roger Bivand
Economic Geography Section, Department of Economics, Norwegian School of
Economics and Business Administration, Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen,
Norway. voice: +47 55 95 93 55; fax +47 55 95 95 43
e-mail: Roger.Bivand at nhh.no