The R Project SVN R

\name{CHANGES}

\title{Windows-specific changes to R}

\encoding{UTF-8}

\section{CHANGES IN R VERSIONS > 2.15.0}{

  \itemize{

    \item Windows-specific changes will now be announced in the

    common NEWS file.

  }

}

\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.15.0}{

  \subsection{NEW FEATURES}{

    \itemize{

      \item The 32-bit and 64-bit builds are now treated equally, as it

      is anticipated that 64-bit R will soon be (if not already) the

      more commonly used.  This entails:

      The \command{Rterm} or \command{Rgui} title mentions 32-bit as

      well as 64-bit.

      The desktop icons are labelled \code{R i386} and \code{R x64}.

      \command{R CMD INSTALL} for a package with compiled code will fail

      if compilation fails for any of the installed sub-architectures:

      use \option{--no-multiarch} to override this.

      \item \code{postscript(file = "|cmd")} now works on Windows.

      \item \code{file.symlink()} is now implemented on \abbr{NTFS} file

      systems on Vista or later, for accounts which have suitable

      permissions (and most will not).  It can link existing

      directories, and existing-or-not files.

      \item There is a new function \code{Sys.junction()} to create

      junction points on \abbr{NTFS} file systems.

      \item C-level error formats now use the trio library, and so for

      example output \samp{1.53e-11} (as required by C99) rather than

      \samp{1.53e-011}.

    }

  }

  \subsection{INSTALLER}{

    \itemize{

      \item The installer has many fewer options with more files always

      being installed, as a few Mb of file space is nowadays no longer

      an issue.

      \item It is now possible to select \sQuote{64-bit Files}

      from the standard installer even on a 32-bit version of Windows.

    }

  }

  \subsection{PACKAGE INSTALLATION}{

    \itemize{

      \item As the current toolchain uses only 32-bit executables, it is

      possible to compile a package for both architectures on 32-bit

      Windows provided both architectures of \R have been installed: use

      \command{Rcmd INSTALL --compile-both}.

      \item \code{Rcmd INSTALL --merge-multiarch} will work (but do a

      normal install) if only one architecture is installed.

    }

  }

  \subsection{BUG FIXES}{

    \itemize{

      \item Due to a race condition, some graphics changes were not

      flushed to the display if another graphics window was closed at

      nearly the same time.  (Reported by Michael Sumner.)      

    }

  }

}

\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.14.2}{

  \subsection{NEW FEATURES}{

    \itemize{

      \item \code{bitmap()} and \code{dev2bitmap()} look for

      \command{gswin64c.exe} (as used by 64-bit \I{GhostScript}), in

      preference to \command{gswin32c.exe}.

    }

  }

  \subsection{INSTALLATION}{

    \itemize{

      \item The sources (and packages) can now be compiled using the

      \I{multilib} toolchain developed for \R 2.15.x: see the

      \samp{MULTI} macro in \file{MkRules.dist}.  This toolchain is used

      for the CRAN binary distribution.

    }

  }

  \subsection{PACKAGE INSTALLATION}{

    \itemize{

      \item The preferred toolchain has changed since the one used for

      \R 2.12.0 to 2.14.1: see the\sQuote{R Installation and

      Administration manual}.  Compiled code (except DLLs) may be

      incompatible with previous toolchains (and compiled C++ code

      almost certainly will be: users of \CRANpkg{Rcpp} take care).

      Ensure that the settings in \file{MkRules.local} are appropriate

      to the toolchain you use.

      \item There is a new macro (aka make variable)

      \samp{SHLIB_PTHREAD_FLAGS}.  This is set to \option{-pthread} on

      builds using toolchains which support it, and should be included

      in both \samp{PKG_CPPFLAGS} (or the Fortran or F9x equivalents)

      and \samp{PKG_LIBS}.

    }

  }

  \subsection{BUG FIXES}{

    \itemize{

      \item Using a prompt of more than 80 characters in

      \code{readline()} could cause a buffer overflow in \I{Rterm}.

      (Reported by \I{Henrik Bengtsson}.)

      \item Some of the custom messages in the installer were corrupted:

      add a \abbr{BOM} mark to the file as now required by Unicode \I{Inno Setup}.

      (\PR{14816})

    }

  }

}

\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.14.1}{

  \subsection{NEW FEATURES}{

    \itemize{

      \item The \code{Save as} menu item on the script

      editor adds extension \file{.R} to a file name without an extension.

      \item In package \pkg{parallel}, \code{detectCores(logical =

	FALSE)} makes an OS-dependent attempt to find the number of

      physical cores.  It usually succeeds, even on \I{XP}.

    }

  }

  \subsection{PACKAGE INSTALLATION}{

    \itemize{

      \item The directory pointed to by \env{USER_LOCAL} can now have

      architecture-specific sub-directories \file{lib/i386} and

      \file{lib/x64}.

    }

  }

  \subsection{BUG FIXES}{

    \itemize{

      \item The fix for \PR{14543} caused stack problems with outputting

      large \R objects (e.g., data frames of 25,000 items).  (\PR{14698})

      \item In a double-byte locale (Chinese, Japanese, Korean),

      \code{grep()} and friends might have used byte-wise matching of

      strings in the native encoding.  (\PR{14622})

    }

  }

}

\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.14.0}{

  \subsection{NEW FEATURES}{

    \itemize{

      \item The \code{yLineBias} of the \code{windows()} family of

      devices has been changed from 0.1 to 0.2: this changes slightly

      the vertical positioning of text (including axis annotations).

      This can be overridden by setting the new \code{"ylbias"} graphical

      parameter.  This was done for consistency with other devices

      such as \code{pdf()}.

      \item \command{R CMD build} once again attempts to preserve file

      permissions on Windows.

      \item There is support for \I{cairographics}-based devices using the

      same code as on Unix-alikes.  This can be selected by the new

      \code{type} argument of the bitmap devices \code{bmp()},

      \code{jpeg()}, \code{png()} and \code{tiff()}, and devices

      \code{svg()}, \code{cairo_pdf()} and \code{cairo_ps()} are now

      available on Windows.

      These are not compiled in by default when building from source:

      see the instructions in the \sQuote{R Installation and

	Administration Manual}.

      \item All the Windows-specific graphics devices now have a

      \code{family} argument.  If non-empty this specifies an initial

      family to be used for fonts 1--4.  If empty the fonts specified in

      the \file{Rdevga} configuration file are used for the Windows \abbr{GDI}

      devices and \code{"sans"} for \I{cairographics}-based devices.

      This will generally be a Windows font name such as

      \code{"Lucida Bright"} or one of the device-independent names

      (\code{"sans"}, \code{"serif"} and \code{"mono"}).  Outside

      Western Europe you may need to select a family that better

      supports your locale such as \code{"Arial MS Unicode"} or one

      specific to Chinese/Korean/Thai \dots{}.

      \item There is a new \file{antialias} argument to

      \code{windows()}, \code{win.print()} and the bitmap devices.

      This is an option that can be set in \code{windows.options()} to

      set the default for \code{windows()} (and \code{win.graph()}).

      This gives a hint to the Windows plotting system.  Whether

      anti-aliasing is actually used principally depends on the OS

      settings: this argument should at least be able to turn it

      off.  The default behaviour (unchanged from before) is that Windows

      will use anti-aliasing for screen devices (and bitmap devices, as

      they plot on a hidden screen) if \I{ClearType} has been enabled.  For

      those not using \I{ClearType}, \code{windows.options(antialias =

	"cleartype")} will make this the default, and it will probably

      give more legible plots. 

      The argument can also be used for the \I{cairographics}-based versions

      of the bitmap devices.

      \item The \sQuote{Update packages ...} menu item now runs

      \code{update.packages(ask="graphics", checkBuilt=TRUE)}.

      \item \code{R CMD INSTALL} preserves the package-directory

      modification time when it restores an earlier install of the package.

      \item File extensions \code{.xz}, \code{.rda} and \code{.RData}

      have been added to those which default to binary transfer for

      \code{download.file()}.

      \item \code{install.packages()} and \command{R CMD check} have a

      small delay after removing a directory to counteract some

      interference from anti-virus software.

      \item There is a Danish translation of the \I{RGui} menus.

    }

  }

  \subsection{INSTALLATION}{

    \itemize{

      \item Compilation of C and Fortran code now uses the optimization

      flag \option{-mtune=core2}: this will improve performance a few

      percent on recent CPUs at the expense of those which are several

      years old.  Its effect is particularly evident on 64-bit builds.

      This can be overridden when building from the sources: see the

      \samp{EOPTS} macro defined in file \file{MkRules.dist}.

      \item Where both 32- and 64-bit versions of R are installed, the

      file association for \file{.RData} files defaults to 64-bit R (it

      defaulted to 32-bit in R 2.12.x and 2.13.x).

      \item There is preliminary support for \sQuote{\I{multilib}}

      toolchains which use options \option{--m32} or \option{--m64} to

      select the architecture; set the appropriate macros in

      \file{MkRules.local}.

      It is the intention to move to such a toolchain when they become

      mature enough.

    }

  }

  \subsection{PACKAGE INSTALLATION}{

    \itemize{

      \item \file{Rzlib.dll} (sometimes used in packages \emph{via}

      \samp{$(ZLIB_LIBS)}) does not include the buggy \I{gzio}   % for balance: $

      interface from \I{zlib} 1.2.5.

    }

  }

  \subsection{DEFUNCT}{

    \itemize{

      \item{zip.unpack()} (deprecated in \R 2.13.0) is defunct:

      use \code{unzip()} instead.

    }

  }

  \subsection{BUG FIXES}{

    \itemize{

      \item Raster drawing on \code{win.metafile()} (or copying a plot

      that includes a raster image from another device to a Metafile)

      now does not crash.  (Reported by \I{Stefan Gelissen}.)

    }

  }

}

\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.13.2}{

  \subsection{BUG FIXES}{

    \itemize{

      \item The fix for \PR{14583} caused inconsistent behaviour in other

      areas, e.g.\sspace{}\PR{14628}, extra lines appearing in image displays,

      and uneven bases on histograms.  (\PR{14632}).

      \item Opening large numbers of \code{windows()} graphics devices

      could cause some of them to fail to redraw (\PR{14668}).

    }

  }

}

\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.13.1}{

  \subsection{NEW FEATURES}{

    \itemize{

      \item \command{R CMD build} no longer attempts to preserve file

      permissions on Windows, because Windows (unlike POSIX-compliant

      OSes) stops read-only files being deleted in version-control

      directories.

      \item \code{shell.exec()} now interprets files relative to the current

      working directory (rather than \samp{R_HOME}).

      \item \code{file.info()} now accepts \sQuote{file} names with

      trailing directory separators, even though such names are invalid

      on Windows.

      \item The \code{windows()} family of devices now supports()

      per-pixel alpha for raster images.

    }

  }

  \subsection{BUG FIXES}{

    \itemize{

      \item Launching the PDF manuals from the \I{Rgui} menus did not work

      on some versions of Windows.

      \item The windows() screen device would sometimes fail to plot

      (visibly) points with \code{pch="."}. \PR{14583}

      \item \code{system()} and related functions sometimes failed

      when run in \file{Rgui}.

      \item Saving to PDF from the menu of a \code{windows()} device

      used defaults for \code{family}, \code{fg} and \code{bg} from

      \code{ps.options()} rather than \code{pdf.options()} (but

      the factory-fresh defaults were the same).

      \item Shutting down the \R session cleaned up the temporary

      directory before closing all graphics devices.  On Windows this

      necessitated changing the working directory, so some devices

      (e.g., \code{tiff()}) could write files in the wrong directory if

      closed during shutdown.  The order has been reversed.      

    }

  }

}

\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.13.0}{

  \subsection{WINDOWS VERSION}{

    \itemize{

      \item Windows 2000 is no longer supported.  (It went end-of-life in

      July 2010.)

    }

  }

  \subsection{NEW FEATURES}{

    \itemize{

      \item \code{win_iconv} has been updated: this version has a change

      in the behaviour with \abbr{BOM}s on UTF-16 and UTF-32 files -- it

      removes \abbr{BOM}s when reading and adds them when writing.  (This is

      consistent with Microsoft applications, but Unix versions of

      \code{iconv} usually ignore them.)

      \item Support for repository type \samp{win64.binary} (used for

      64-bit Windows binaries for \R 2.11.x only) has been removed.

      \item The installers no longer put an \sQuote{Uninstall} item on

      the start menu (to conform to current Microsoft \abbr{UI} guidelines).

      \item Running \R always sets the environment variable \env{R_ARCH}

      (as it does on a Unix-alike from the shell-script front-end).

      \item The defaults for \code{options("browser")} and

      \code{options("pdfviewer")} are now set from environment variables

      \env{R_BROWSER} and \env{R_PDFVIEWER} respectively (as on a

      Unix-alike).  A value of \code{"false"} suppresses display (even

      if there is no \command{false.exe} present on the path).

      \item If \code{options("install.lock")} is set to \code{TRUE},

      binary package installs are protected against failure similar to

      the way source package installs are protected.

      \item \code{file.exists()} and \code{unlink()} have more support

      for files > 2GB.

      \item The versions of \command{R.exe} in

      \file{R_HOME/bin/{i386,x64}/bin} now support options such as

      \command{R --vanilla CMD}: there is no comparable interface for

      \file{Rcmd.exe}.

      \item A few more file operations will now work with >2GB files.

      \item The environment variable \env{R_HOME} in an \R session now

      uses slash as the path separator (as it always has when set by

      \command{Rcmd.exe}).

      \item \command{Rgui} has a new menu item for the PDF

      \sQuote{Sweave User Manual}.

    }

  }

  \subsection{DEPRECATED}{

    \itemize{

      \item{zip.unpack()} is deprecated: use \code{unzip()}.

    }

  }

  \subsection{INSTALLATION}{

    \itemize{

      \item There is support for \samp{libjpeg-turbo} \emph{via}

      setting \code{JPEGDIR} to that value in \file{MkRules.local}.

      Support for \samp{jpeg-6b} has been removed.

      \item The sources now work with \samp{libpng-1.5.1}, 

      \samp{jpegsrc.v8c} (which are used in the CRAN builds) and

      \samp{tiff-4.0.0beta6} (CRAN builds use 3.9.1).  It is possible

      that they no longer work with older versions than 

      \samp{libpng-1.4.5}. 

    } 

  }

  \subsection{BUG FIXES}{

    \itemize{

      \item Workaround for the incorrect values given by Windows'

      \code{casinh} function on the branch cuts.

      \item Bug fixes for drawing raster objects on \code{windows()}.  The

      symptom was the occasional raster image not being drawn, especially

      when drawing multiple raster images in a single expression.

      Thanks to Michael Sumner for report and testing.

      \item Printing extremely long string values could overflow the

      stack and cause the GUI to crash.  (\PR{14543})

    }

  }

}

\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.12.2}{

  \subsection{NEW FEATURES}{

    \itemize{

      \item Building badly-written vignettes which used the default

      device (\code{pdf(file = "Rplots.pdf")}) could leave the device

      open and hence the file \file{Rplots.pdf} could not be removed on

      Windows: all devices are now closed.

    }

  }

  \subsection{BUG FIXES}{

    \itemize{

      \item In some circumstances the caret (cursor) could be positioned 

      incorrectly. (\PR{14460})

      \item When loading \file{Rconsole} from disk, a spurious warning

      message was sometimes shown.

      \item In \R 2.12.1, \code{system()} sometimes passed an empty

      input stream to the new process rather than allowing user input.

      \item The internal method for \code{untar()} does a better job of

      unravelling symbolic links in the tarball (but still with many

      limitations).

      \item The graphical dialog version of \code{select.list()} could

      cause later \I{dialogs} to fail if Windows events were not processed

      between the calls.

    }

  }

}

\section{CHANGES IN R VERSION 2.12.1}{

  \subsection{NEW FEATURES}{

    \itemize{

      \item \code{system()} and \code{system2()} with output redirected

      to a character vector now give a warning if the command returns a

      non-zero error code.  (This is what a Unix-alike does as from \R

      2.12.0.)

      \item \code{system()} and \code{system2()} no longer discard

      output from the command to stdout and stderr as often as they used

      to, and more cases of \code{system2()} are implemented.

      \item \code{stdout} is now flushed after echoing the input line.

      \item The internal implementation of \code{tar()} (package

      \pkg{utils}) is now supported on Windows.

    }

  }

  \subsection{INSTALLATION}{

    \itemize{

      \item The \abbr{MSI} installer is now made by an \R script, and there is

      now support for 64-bit builds.  (Unlike the \I{Inno Setup} installer,

      there are separate \abbr{MSI} installers for 32- and 64-bit Windows.)

      It is now built using \command{WiX 3.x} rather than \command{WiX

	2.0}.  (As a result it is about 25\% smaller.)

    }

  }

  \subsection{BUG FIXES}{

    \itemize{

      \item Some warning/error messages from \code{dyn.load()} could be

      masked in \command{Rgui} on Windows 7, as that OS can return

      messages containing carriage returns and \command{Rgui} does not

      support overwriting.

      \item Filenames could not be specified using backslashes in 

      \code{Sweave()}.

      \item In \R 2.12.0, \code{system(intern = TRUE)} captured

      \file{stderr} on \command{Rterm} when it was documented to only do

      so on \command{Rgui}.

      \item \command{Rgui} in \R 2.12.0 (only) did not always handle lines

      containing carriage returns (\samp{\r}) correctly: sometimes

      random characters where shown.

      Since carriage returns have been supported in \command{Rgui},

      the cursor positioning after outputting a line containing a

      carriage return had been unreliable.

    }

  }

}

\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

       \I{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 returns \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.

       \item \command{Rscript -e} and similar use a temporary file, and

       now work harder to ensure that filename is not the same as some

       other simultaneous \R process.

    }

  }

  \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, CRAN extras and

        \I{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.

	The default personal library, e.g.\sspace{}\file{~/R/win-library/2.12}

	is now the same for both 32- and 64-bit \R.

      \item The recommended 64-bit toolchain has been changed to one

      that does not add leading underscores.  See

      \url{http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/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.\sspace{}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}.

    }

  }

  \subsection{BUG FIXES}{

    \itemize{

      \item \command{R.exe} when used in place of \command{Rterm.exe}

      set the environment variables set by \command{R CMD}.  Conversely,

      \command{R CMD BATCH} did not.

    }

  }

}

\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}.

      \item \code{memory.limit()} did not allow sizes greater than

      4095 on 64 bit builds. (\PR{14372})

    }

  }

}

\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 \I{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 \I{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 \abbr{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 always

        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 \I{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 \I{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 '\I{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.

    }

  }

}