What useful R package doesn't currently exist? [closed]

Answer 1

An output device which produces Javascript code, perhaps using the protovis library.

Answer 2

as a programmer and writer of libraries for colleagues, I was definitely missing a logging package, I googled and asked around, here too, then wrote one myself. it is on r-forge, here, and it s called "logging" :)

I use it and I'm obviously still developing it.

Answer 3

A native .NET interface to RGUI. R(D)Com is based on COM, and it only allows to exchange matrices, not more complex structures.

Answer 4

A wiki package that adds wiki-like documentation to R packages. You'd have a inst/wiki subdirectory with plain text files in markdown, asciidoc, textile, with embedded R code. With the right incantation, these files would be executed (think brew and/or asciidoc packages), and the relevant output uploaded to a given repository online (github, googlecode, etc.). Another function could take care of synchronizing the changes made online, typically via svn or git.

Suddenly you have a wiki documentation for your package with reproducible examples (could even be hooked to R CMD check).

EDIT 2012:

... and now the knitr package would make this process even easier and neater

Answer 5

I would like to see a possibility to embed another programming language within R in a more straightforward way by the users. I give this as an example in some common-lisp implementations one could write a function with embedded C code like this:

(defun sample (x)
  (ffi:c-inline (n1 n2) (:int :int) (values :int :int) "{
    int n1 = #0, n2 = #1, out1 = 0, out2 = 1;
    while (n1 <= n2) {
      out1 += n1;
      out2 *= n1;
      n1++;
    }
    @(return 0)= out1;
    @(return 1)= out2;
    }"
   :side-effects nil))

It would be good if one could write an R function with embedded C or lisp code (more interested in the latter) in a similar way.

Answer 6

A natural interface to the .NET framework would be awesome, though I suspect that that might be a lot of work.

EDIT: Syntax highlighting from within RGui would also be wonderful.

ANOTHER EDIT: R.NET now exists to integrate R with .NET.