Hi, According to
https://doc.sagemath.org/html/en/reference/spkg/rpy2.html#spkg-rpy2 the rpy2 package is a "standard package". However, I just checked multiple builds in various places of sage-9.8 and also the latest master branch, and rpy2 is not installed. I can see why rpy2 isn't installed. It's because for sage-9.8 R was deprecated from being a standard package to an optional package, and of course there is no way to install rpy2 if a sufficiently library usable R isn't installed. 1. What is the definition these days of a standard package? Is a standard package "A package that might or might not be installed, depending on what happens to be available when ./configure was run?" A standard package used to be a package that was definitely installed in every copy of Sage. It seems to me that these days there are three types of packages: - definitely installed in every copy of sage. An example is pari. - there's an attempt to install them when sage gets built, if conditions are right: an example is rpy2 - they are definitely not installed when sage is initially built: example include various specialized databases. 2. A possible suggestion for improving the error messages. Just doing "sage -i rpy2" doesn't work, because that complains that R isn't installable: [...] [r-none] If the system package is installed, ./configure will check whether it can be used. [r-none] [r-none] [r-none] Error: r is a dummy package and [r-none] cannot be installed using the Sage distribution. OK, I realize I need to follow the directions above (about ubuntu), and then I get r dev installed. I guess I know enough to actually run ./configure again, and then I do "sage -i rpy2", and then that does a LOT, e.g., spending hour(s) building gmp, mpfr, etc. (why? because I ran ./configure?). Why does it say "If the system package is installed, ./configure will check whether it can be used."? This isn't user friendly. It should say: "Ensure that the system R package is installed, then run ./configure. After you do that, you can then run 'sage -i rpy2'." MOTIVATION: For every version of Sage up to and including 9.7, users could use rpy2, which lots of little bits of sage evidently now rely on,e g., "r.mean([3,7,9])". By deprecating the R package entirely, thus making rpy2 into a sudo-standard package in version 9.8, using the r interface is just broken, since it uses rpy2. My guess is that rpy2 and all code that depends on R should be made optional packages and marked #optional in the docs, etc., and it's just a bug that hasn't been done? Alternatively, we have to make it so that building Sage depends on R being installed, or we have to change the definition of "standard" package. -- William (http://wstein.org) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-devel" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sage-devel/CACLE5GDppSnhYww8t%2Bykn1hw-3crq6KG3OfD5XSW7TroxQB2jg%40mail.gmail.com.
