The R Project SVN R

\newcommand{\PR}{\Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_PR(#1)}}

\name{CHANGES}
\title{Windows-specific changes to R}
\encoding{UTF-8}
\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.12.0}{
  \subsection{NEW FEATURES}{
    \itemize{
      \item A sub-architecture is used for 32-bit (i386) as well as
       64-bit (x64) builds.  32-bit packages containing compiled code
       need to re-installed for this release (64-bit packages built
       for 2.11.x will most likely still work).
      
       Architecture-specific files (such as \file{Rgui.exe} and
       \file{Rscript.exe}) are now in \file{R_HOME/bin/i386} or
       \file{R_HOME/bin/x64}.
      
       Because many people expect it, there is an executable
       \file{R_HOME/bin/R.exe}, which accepts \option{--arch} and
       launches either \file{R_HOME/bin/i386/R.exe} or
       \file{R_HOME/bin/x64/R.exe}, and analogously for
       \file{Rscript.exe}.  If not specified by their argument
       \option{--arch}, these check the environment variable
       \env{R_ARCH} for the architecture to use.
        
      \item The \command{Rgui} console now has an optional blinking
        caret (cursor) to assist screen readers for the visually
        impaired.
        
      \item \code{normalizePath()} now signals a warning instead of an
        error when the input path does not exist.  It attempts partial
        normalization, or if that fails, returns the original input.
      
      \item All the \command{Rcmd} sub-commands except \code{config} and
       \code{Sd2d} are now handled internally rather by shell scripts.
      
      \item \command{Rcmd} has a new sub-command \command{texify} to run
       MiKTeX's \file{texify.exe} with arguments to find files such as
       \file{Sweave.sty}.  See the examples in \code{?Sweave}.

       \item \code{system(intern = FALSE)} now return \code{127} (the
       same as Unix-alikes) rather than \code{-1} if the command cannot
       be run, and (like Unix-alikes) no longer gives a warning.
    }
  }
  \subsection{INSTALLATION}{
    \itemize{
      \item The preferred toolchain for 32-bit builds (including
       packages) is now based on \command{gcc 4.5.0}: see the \sQuote{R
       Installation and Administration Manual}.
      
      \item It is now possible to build \R and the standard installer
        without Perl: only maintainer-mode tasks now need Perl.
    }
  }
  \subsection{64-bit NEWS}{
    \itemize{
      \item The 32- and 64-bit distributions have been merged:
      
        There is a combined installer (called
        \file{R-<version>-win.exe}).  When used under 32-bit Windows
        this works as before and installs 32-bit \R.  When used under
        64-bit Windows there are options to install either or both of
        32- and 64-bit \R: the default is to install both.
      
        The default package type is \code{"win.binary"} on both 32- and
        64-bit builds: a single repository contains binary packages for
        both architectures.  This is in place for CRAN, CRANextras and
        BioC: \code{type = "win64.binary"} can still be used for any
        repositories which follow the \R 2.11.x convention.  With the
        default filters (see \code{?available.packages}) packages will
        only be offered if they are available for the current
        architecture.
    
      \item The recommended toolchain has been changed to one that does
      not add leading underscores. See
      \url{http://www.murdoch-sutherland.com/Rtools/} or
      \url{http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/Rtools/}.  Any static or import
      libraries for external software used in installing packages will
      need to be re-compiled for this toolchain, but the use of DLLs is
      unaffected.

      \item For those building \R from the sources, the 64-bit
       \code{Tcl} binary distribution for 2.12.x is in file
       \file{R64a_Tcl_8-5-8.zip} and contains e.g. directory
       \file{Tcl/bin64} and not \file{Tcl/bin}.
    }
  }
  \subsection{PACKAGE INSTALLATION}{
    \itemize{
      \item The deprecated environment variable \env{RHOME} is no longer
      set when a package is installed: use \env{R_HOME} instead (and
      depend on \code{R (>= 2.9)} ).
      
      \item Package installation, including \file{configure.win}
       scripts, can use \code{$\{R_HOME\}/bin$\{R_ARCH_BIN\}} as a
       portable way to find the binaries such as \file{Rscript.exe}.
    }
  }
}

\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.11.1 patched}{
  \subsection{BUG FIXES}{
    \itemize{
      \item \code{file.rename()} now waits for the rename to complete
      before returning, so that operations on the new filename will
      not fail.
      
      \item \code{Sys.info()} and \code{win.version()} now report
      Windows 7 as such (and not as Vista), and \code{Sys.info()} now
      reports the machine type as \code{"x86-64"} on 64-bit platforms.

      \item \code{serialize()} to a raw vector works around the dismal
      performance of Windows' memory manager by allocating much larger
      chunks of memory less frequently.
      
      \item \code{readClipboard()} could cause a segfault with certain
      clipboard data.

      \item A fix intended for Mac OS X was incorrectly applied to
      Windows, so \code{iconv(x, from, "")} in a C locale was interpreted as
      requesting translation to UTF-8.

      \item \code{system(intern=TRUE)} often returned \code{0}
      rather than an error status if the command could not be found, if
      run from \code{Rterm} or from \code{Rgui} with
      \code{show.output.on.console = FALSE}.
    }
  }
}

\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.11.1}{
  \subsection{NEW FEATURES}{
    \itemize{
      \item The \command{Rgui} console, pagers and editor on the 64-bit
       build now have a title bar icon.
      
      \item The outer frame/console for \command{Rgui/Rterm} mentions
       '(64-bit)' to make it easier to distinguish running copies of \R.
      
      \item The package entries in listbox shown by the \code{Install
       package(s) ...} menu are now explicitly sorted in the current
       locale (as they were in most previous releases, but not in
       2.11.0).
      
      \item \command{R CMD INSTALL} can install zipfiles as binary
      packages.
        
      \item Errors in the \file{Rconsole} file are ignored: silently on
        startup, with a warning when \file{Rconsole} is loaded
        interactively.
    }
  }
}

\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.11.0}{
  \subsection{NEW FEATURES}{
    \itemize{
      \item There is now a native x64 Windows port, with a binary installer
       and binaries of packages available on CRAN.  See the 'R
       Administration and Installation Manual' and the 'R for Windows FAQ'.
      
      \item \command{Rcmd cmd} (or \command{R CMD cmd}) now runs an
       arbitrary '\option{cmd}' if '\option{cmd}' is not one of the
       builtin commands, and does not have extension '\file{.sh}' or
       '\file{.pl}' (when it is run as a shell or Perl script
       respectively).  This is done by passing '\option{cmd}' to the
       command interpreter determined by the \env{COMSPEC} environment
       variable (which in a vanilla Windows system points to
       \file{cmd.exe}).
      
      \item \code{X11()} and \code{x11()} gain additional arguments to
       be more similar to the Unix \code{X11()} device.
      
      \item \code{file.rename()} can work across volumes (by copy-and-delete).
        
      \item The main HTML help page now links to this \file{CHANGES} file.
       (Suggested by Henrik Bengtsson.) 
      
      \item \code{strftime(format = "\%z")} now gives the timezone names
       used by the Olson database and not those used by Windows.
      
      \item \code{iconv(to = "ASCII")} no longer transliterates, but
       \code{iconv(to = "ASCII//TRANSLIT")} will.  This makes
       \code{tools::showNonASCII()} work the same way as on other platforms.
      
      \item \code{readRegistry()} can look at either the 32- or 64-bit view
       of the Registry on 64-bit Windows.
    }
  }
  \subsection{INSTALLATION}{
    \itemize{
      \item The \code{Tcl} timezone files (3Mb on disc) are now an
       optional part of the installation: they would be very rarely used
       with \R.
      
      \item \file{RSetReg.exe} has been updated to (un)set the
       version-specific keys in the same way as the main installer, and
       to have the optional argument \option{/Personal} to (un)set the
       per-user rather than the per-machine keys (which need
       administrative access).
      
      \item When building \R, the recommended way is now to supply a file
       \file{R_HOME/src/gnuwin32/MkRules.local} instead of editing
       \file{MkRules}: there is now no \file{MkRules} file in the
       distribution, but one is generated during the build process.
       
       \file{MkRules.local} can be generated by copying and editing
       \file{MkRules.dist}.
      
      \item The MSI installer defaults to an all-user (per machine)
       install (by setting the \code{ALLUSERS} property to \code{1}).
       This can be changed at installation, and it can be built for a
       user-mode install (see \file{MkRules.dist}).
    }
  }
  \subsection{BUG FIXES}{
    \itemize{
      \item Using \code{ESC} to interrupt a \code{system()} call could
       cause \R to become unstable.
      
      \item \code{0^1i} (which should be complex \code{NAN}) was
      incorrect.
    }
  }
}

\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.10.1 patched}{
  \subsection{BUG FIXES}{
    \itemize{
      \item Some of the MDI toolbar buttons (e.g. \code{"Open Script"})
       did not return the focus to the console if the user cancelled the
       action.
       
      \item \code{system()} (and hence \code{shell()}) did not set the
        standard file handles properly, so some programs would not run.
      
      \item \code{setWinProgressBar()} did not check the type of its
       \code{'title'} and \code{'label'} arguments and might have
       crashed if they were mis-specified.  It now does, thanks to a
       report by Greg Snow.
    }
  }
}
\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.10.1}{
  \subsection{BUG FIXES}{
    \itemize{
      \item The installer did not properly record help type choices in
       \file{R_HOME/etc/Rprofile.site}.
      
      \item \command{Rcmd INSTALL} once again uses
       \option{--no-restore}, for consistency with the Unix version and
       \R 2.9.2.
       
      \item The HTML package index was not constructed properly when the
       library path was specified with backslashes.  (Patch submitted
       by Gabor Grothendieck.)
    }
  }
}

\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.10.0}{
  \subsection{NEW FEATURES}{
    \itemize{
      \item \code{windows()} now has a parameter \code{fillOddEven}
       (default \code{TRUE}), which controls the mode used for polygon
       fills of self-intersecting shapes.
       
      \item The functions \code{arrangeWindows()} and
        \code{getWindowsHandles()} have been added to give more
        programmatic control to the appearance of windows in an R
        session.
        
      \item A \sQuote{Windows} menu has been added to the SDI version of
       the \R GUI, and the corresponding menu in the MDI version has
       been expanded slightly.
      
      \item The \code{libpng} library has been updated to version 1.2.40.
      
      \item The remaining Perl scripts \code{build}, \code{check},
      \code{Rprof}, \code{Sd2Rd} in \file{R_HOME/bin} now have extension
      \file{.pl}.
      
      \item \code{Rcmd} (or \code{R CMD}) can now run \file{.sh} (shell)
       and \file{.pl} (Perl) scripts anywhere on the path (as well as
       \file{.bat} and \file{.exe} files as before).
    }
  }
  \subsection{PACKAGE INSTALLATION}{
    \itemize{
      \item \command{Rcmd SHLIB} (which is used by \command{Rcmd
       INSTALL}) now calls \code{make} without a target, rather than
       target \code{'all'}.  This is now the same as on Unix, and was
       announced in the \file{NEWS} file for 2.9.0.
      
      \item Help files are no longer zipped: rendering as text, HTML,
       latex or examples is now done when needed.
      
       Options \option{--use-zip} and \option{--use-zip-help} in
       \command{R CMD INSTALL} are no longer available and
       \option{--auto-zip} only zips data (or not).
      
       Help in packages installed under 2.9.x may not work correctly,
       and a warning is given when such a package is attached by
       \code{library()}.  Re-installation of all packages is strongly
       recommended (use \code{update.packages(checkBuilt = TRUE)}).
      
       Binary packages are installed without CHM help if they contain
       it (as those intended for 2.9.x may).
      
      \item It is possible to install source packages without Rtools
       provided they have no compiled code and no \file{configure.win} or
       \file{cleanup.win} script.
    }
  }
  \subsection{INSTALLATION}{
    \itemize{
      \item Support for memory profiling is enabled in a standard build
       (this can be changed by editing \file{config.h}).
      
      \item CHM help is no longer supported.
      
      \item The help default for the standard installer is HTML help rather
       than CHM help.
      
      \item The categories in the installers have been simplified.  Now the
       files to support installation of source packages are always
       installed (they are now only 0.7Mb), and there are no longer
       categories 'chtml', 'html/help', 'latex' and 'Rd'.
      
      
    }
  }
  \subsection{BUG FIXES}{
    \itemize{
      \item \command{Rcmd open} now works as documented: previously
       \command{Rcmd open.exe} was required.
      
      \item \code{cat(x, file=)} in \command{Rgui} tried to interpret
       UTF-8-encoded strings for the console rather than converting them
       to the native encoding.
    }
  }
}