Current Ubuntu version of R is old

[Paul Smith]

On Dec 1, 2007 2:14 AM, Derek Broughton <news at pointerstop.ca> wrote:
> > Thanks, Derek. Yes, I wanted to mean r-base. And yes, R is important
> > to me, but I do not know where to find a package with a more recent
> > version of r-base to work on Ubuntu.
>
> Me neither, I'm afraid.  I don't actually have R on this system, because I
> only installed it at the urging of some statistics geeks who were working
> on the hammer principle ("if the only tool you have is a hammer, every
> problem looks like a nail").  They knew how to do something I wanted in R,
> but it turned out to only work in Windows :-).  So I was reduced to using
> Windows & R, or Linux & Perl.  It was a tough call!
>
> Anyway, the usual procedure is to go "upstream", and look for packages
> closer to the source of development.  You could check in Debian
> (packages.debian.org, iirc) and see if they have something more recent in
> sid or experimental, and try installing it. I'd recommend that if that
> requests obviously non-R dependencies, don't use it - it could break Ubuntu
> apps - but you could get the _source_ package from there, and compile it.
>
> If Debian doesn't work, you'll probably have to go to the R site itself, and
> get the source (unless they happen to have .debs).

Thanks again, Derek. Meanwhile, I filed this bug, asking for an update:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/r-base/+bug/173175

Paul