Windows Tools Requirements

S-Plus® for Windows® users must install additional software components to build and install packages from source code. This software is available for free download from the sites listed below.

NOTE  You do not need any of this additional software if you are only installing packages from CSAN.

Package Requirements

Perl

The scripts for creating, building, and installing packages from source are written in the Perl scripting language. We recommend, and have tested with, the Perl for Windows implementation from ActiveState. To download ActiveState Perl, browse to the following URL:

http://www.activestate.com/Products/Download/Download.plex?id=ActivePerl
Microsoft HTML Help Workshop

To create compiled help (CHM) files for your package, you need HTML Help Workshop. Compiled Help created with HTML Help Workshop is the only help format supported in S-Plus packages. To download HTMLHelp Workshop, browse to the following URL, and then search for HTML Help Workshop:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/
Unix Tools

If you are starting with a package source archive that has a tar.gz extension, you need tar and gzip utilities to unpack the archive. The Cygwin™ tools, a Linux®-like environment for Windows, contains both utilities. To download the Cygwin tools, browse to the following URL:

http://www.cygwin.com/

A collection of useful tools (including the required tar and gzip utilities) has been created for building packages in R. You can use this collection of tools with S-Plus. The Rtools installer now includes both MinGW gcc versions 3.4.5 (used for R versions 2.5.x) and 4.2.1 (used for R 2.6.x and later), as well as Vanilla Perl. See the Rtools.txt file for the latest information.

tools.zip and R_Tcl.zip are no longer being distributed, now that they have been merged into the Rtools installer.

Compilers

You must have a C/C++ compiler if your package includes C or C++ code.

The S-Plus package system currently supports the Microsoft Visual C++® compiler. You might already have the Microsoft Visual C++ compiler installed. If not, you can install Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition® (which is free), by browsing to the following URL:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc/

S-Plus supports Fortran code compiled with Microsoft Visual Fortran®. At this time, there is no free version of Visual Fortran available.

Access to Windows Tools

For the S-Plus package build and install scripts to function properly, you must put the tools listed above in your path after you have installed them.

  1. From the Start menu, click Run.
  2. In the text box, type cmd, and then click OK.
  3. From the cmd shell window, you can check to make sure the tools are working by trying the following commands:
  4. If you are using the Visual C++ compiler, type the following: cl /help
  5. In addition, set the following environment variables in the appropriate directories in your Visual C++ installation:

The file vcvars32.bat, created when the Visual C++ compiler is installed, should set the necessary compiler variables. You can find this file in the bin subdirectory in your Visual C++ installation. Run vcvars32.bat from the cmd shell window every time before you run any package creation script.