[Zope] Zope and R

[A.J. Rossini]

>>>>> "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
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