We've been working on making it easier to write packages that work in both R and Splus. One issue is that R and Splus use different internal representations of integers and this makes a difference on their 64-bit versions: R uses ints (32 bits on 32-bit and 64-bit versions of R) and Splus uses longs (32 bits on 32-bit Splus and 64 bits on 64-bit Splus). The obvious ways to deal with the difference are to use a typedef or a #define to map those to a common name. I think it would be handy to put this definition into R.h or some other R header file (Splus now has an R.h and other header files with the R names that we recommend for all package work.)
Should this be a typedef or a #define? What should its name be? There is a file, RSCommon.h (from omegahat?), that I've seen in a few packages which uses a typedef, RSInt, for this. Repeated typedefs, even with the same definition, are illegal so putting typedef ... RSInt into R.h would break those packages. (C doesn't yet have an if-typedef-exists or untypedef construct, does it?) I like XXXinteger, since it refers to the R/Splus name of the class, "integer", instead of the C-like name. Should the "XXX" prefix be "RS" or "RSplus" or "S"? I like typedefs since you can use them in the debugger. Should a typedef be accompanied by a #define XXXinteger_defined so one can write code that works on older versions of R or Splus without the typedef? I think R.h would be a good place for it, but I don't have strong feeling about that one. If we can come to a consensus on the name, typedef/#define, and which *.h file, I can put it into Splus. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Dunlap Insightful Corporation bill at insightful dot com "All statements in this message represent the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect Insightful Corporation policy or position." ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
