Thanks for the useful suggestions. I am not as CS savvy as some of you, so maybe Hans-Peter could reply? I haven't checked into it, but does his package write to files that are OpenOffice compliant? Would that satisfy more users?
Mark Hin-Tak Leung wrote: > James W. MacDonald wrote: >> Have you looked at RDCOMClient? I would imagine you could do what you >> want with this package. >> >> http://www.omegahat.org/RDCOMClient/ > > Interesting point. But the dcom client would be windows-specific? > (those I mentioned - the perl mondules, openoffice, run on windows, > as well as unix boxes - not sure about gnumeric :-). > > In fact there is a very perverse way of doing it - ActiveState provides > a PerlCom product for hooking up dcom with activestate perl. i.e. you > can go via R -> RDComClient -> PerlCom -> ActiveState Perl -> > SpreadSheet::* . Just so that it does not require Excel installed > or an MS Office license... > > In that sense, probably technology based on bridging over odbc > is also acceptable? > > HTL > >> Hin-Tak Leung wrote: >>> I don't know of any native xls read/write facility in R, either >>> in core or as add-ons (I could be wrong), but if you want some source >>> code to scavenge on to build some R package out of it, there are two >>> perl modules, Spreadsheet::ParseExcel and Spreadsheet::WriteExcel >>> which are small enough to "read from front cover to back cover", >>> so to speak, might be useful for reference and steal code from. >>> >>> The other open-source packages which can read/write excel files >>> are gnumeric and openoffice and probably too big to find one's way >>> around the source code to steal there :-). >>> >>> Good luck. >>> >>> HTL >>> >>> Mark W Kimpel wrote: >>> >>>> Hans-Peter and other R developers, >>>> >>>> How are you? Have you made any progess with embedding Url's in Excel? >>>> >>>> Well, I have been busy thinking of more things for you to do;) >>>> >>>> My colleagues in the lab are not R literate, and some are barely >>>> computer literate, so I give them everything in Excel workbooks. I >>>> have gradually evolved a system such that these workbooks have >>>> become compendia of my data, output, and methods. That, in fact, is >>>> why I bought the Pro version of xlsReadWritePro. I have been saving >>>> graphics as PDF files, then inserting them as object in Excel sheets. >>>> >>>> What I would like to be able to do is to embed objects (files) in >>>> sheets of a workbook directly from within R. I would also like to be >>>> able to save my current R workspace as an object embedded in a sheet >>>> so that in the future, if packages change, I could go back and >>>> recreate the analysis. I do not need to be able to manuipulate files >>>> that R has not created, like a PDF file from another user. I would, >>>> however, like to be able to save my graphics as PDF files inside a >>>> worksheet, even if it meant creating a temp file or something. >>>> >>>> Before people begin talking about how MySQL or some other database >>>> could handle all that archiving, let me say that that is not what my >>>> colleagues want. They want a nice Excel file that they can take home >>>> on there laptops. One thing I like about worksheets is that they >>>> themselves can contain many embedded files, so it keeps our virtual >>>> desks neater and less confusing. >>>> >>>> Hans, if you could do this, it would be of tremendous benefit to me >>>> and hopefully a lot of people. R developers tend to think that all >>>> scientists are running Linux on 64-bit computers, but most >>>> biomedical researches still store date in Excel files. This won't >>>> solve everybody's needs, but it could be a start. >>>> >>>> Well, let me know what you think. I am cc'ing R-devel to see if any >>>> of those guys have ideas as well. >>>> >>>> Thanks, >>>> Mark >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> ______________________________________________ >>> R-devel@r-project.org mailing list >>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel >> >> > > -- Mark W. Kimpel MD Neuroinformatics Department of Psychiatry Indiana University School of Medicine ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel