Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a promising project aiming to deliver a more usable Linux desktop environment.

Clang vs. gcc

This article about clang vs. gcc is helpful.

Some Rcpp benchmarks

I ran the Fibonacci number example from the Rcpp package on a number of computers and operating systems. Here are the results:

A. On my main computer (Core 2 Extreme 3.06GHz, 8 GB memory) running Ubuntu 10.04 (g++ 4.4.3):

        test replications elapsed relative user.self sys.self

3 fibRcpp(N)            1   0.148   1.0000      0.14     0.01

1    fibR(N)            1  87.078 588.3649     87.03     0.04

2   fibRC(N)            1  91.209 616.2770     91.14     0.07

B. Same computer running Windows Vista (g++ 4.5.0):

        test replications elapsed relative user.self sys.self
3 fibRcpp(N)            1    0.21   1.0000      0.21     0.00
1    fibR(N)            1   92.08 438.4762     90.47     0.05
2   fibRC(N)            1   94.39 449.4762     93.13     0.03


C. On my second laptop (Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz, 4 GB memory) running Windows 7 (g++ 4.5.0):

        test replications elapsed relative user.self sys.self
3 fibRcpp(N)            1    0.17   1.0000      0.17     0.00
1    fibR(N)            1   73.62 433.0588     73.47     0.00
2   fibRC(N)            1   74.27 436.8824     74.20     0.03

D. On the same computer running Revolution R Enterprise 5:
      test replications elapsed relative user.self sys.self
2 fibRC(N)            1   72.31 1.000000     72.09        0
1  fibR(N)            1   72.99 1.009404     72.79        0 

E. On my third laptop (Core 2 Duo 2.50GHz, 2 GB memory) running Mint Debian (g++ 4.6.2):

        test replications elapsed relative user.self sys.self

3 fibRcpp(N)            1   0.148   1.0000     0.148     0.00

1    fibR(N)            1  65.535 442.8041     65.328    0.200

2   fibRC(N)            1  65.664 443.6757     65.492    0.172

Why the faster computer performed worse, on both R and Rcpp versions?

Rcpp on windows

I got Rcpp working on my windows machine by installing the Rtools bundle. It is not clearly to me how to get GSL installed so the RcppGSL will also work.

Richard Stallman was right all along

One more person agreed with Richard Stallman.

Package "rgdal" broke

The new version of "rgdal" package cannot be compiled on my system (both Ubuntu and Debian).

UPDATE: they fixed it by releasing a new version (0.7.8).

NetLogo

The NetLogo developers really want to get things right: today they released the 7th release candidate for the new version (v. 5)!

R is becoming increasingly popular

According to this, R is the 19th most popular language in the first month of 2012!

Cultural revolution and the economic future of China

This article (in China) is worth reading.

Visual debugger and the debug mode of the autorun R console

The StatET team kept their promise and delivered the autorun R console with debug mode on. This, combined with the visual debugger, makes the StatET a very appealing cross-platform environment for working with R.

Useful python libraries for social scientists

Here is a list of useful python libraries for social scientists.