"RB" == Ragnar Beer <rbeer@uni-goettingen.de> writes:
RB> Yep, that's exactly what I mean. It would be very nice if you RB> could comment some more. So, I (and another group, independently) have discussed integration, with the idea of having Zope be a WWW-front end for statistical analysis, both report generation as well as interactive style. There are pretty much 3 approaches that seem to work, and note that as is usual, coolness/slickness factor is inversely proportional to how well it works. Version 1: treat R as batch. This is ugly, and works (i.e. shell-out in CGI-style, constructing image files for the graphics and use LocalFS to read them back in. Version 2: Same, but use RSPython (www.omegahat.org) to embed R within Zope. Eliminates the CGI scripting, but you still have either remote files and/or LocalFS stuff to deal with. The first catch is that RSPython is borderline stable. It doesn't recover from mistakes (like missing objects) very well. Version 3: ZopeR/RZope. It's under development, and basically adds an "RScript" object, as well as allowing Zope and R to read each others data (i.e. R to use ZODB for writing). It's the coolest, least stable, and most vapor of the approaches. It uses RSPython for integration. What I'd like to do is CMF-ify a stable ZopeR/RZope, for use with WWW-based instruction as well as "analysis deliverables" to stat consulting clients (and some labs I work with). It's made interesting by the ease of retrieving/constructing bioinformatics datasets using things like KebasData and other "reformatters/fetchers". Timetable on #3 is probably "1-2 years after whenever funding appears", though there is a large commercial entity considering work on it in-house as a possible basis for an integrated enterprise-level (bio/clinical/medical) informatics system. best, -tony -- A.J. Rossini Rsrch. Asst. Prof. of Biostatistics U. of Washington Biostatistics rossini@u.washington.edu FHCRC/SCHARP/HIV Vaccine Trials Net rossini@scharp.org -------------- http://software.biostat.washington.edu/ ---------------- FHCRC: M: 206-667-7025 (fax=4812)|Voicemail is pretty sketchy/use Email UW: Th: 206-543-1044 (fax=3286)|Change last 4 digits of phone to FAX --- I'm 40% time until March 1st. Try email the other 3 days.... -----