Renjin: a JVM-based interpreter for the R language

#1

Post by phillc73 » Fri, Nov 03, 2017, 11:28 AM UTC

Renjin: a JVM-based interpreter for the R language
renjin.org

Re: Renjin: a JVM-based interpreter for the R language

#2

Post by stewbrew » Fri, Nov 03, 2017, 11:34 AM UTC

IMHO the crucial question is whether users can use libraries that load native libraries and/or make use of rcpp. The docs make me think it's not possible.

Re: Renjin: a JVM-based interpreter for the R language

#3

Post by phillc73 » Fri, Nov 03, 2017, 11:41 AM UTC

stewbrew wrote: post #2

IMHO the crucial question is whether users can use libraries that load native libraries and/or make use of rcpp. The docs make me think it's not possible.

Regarding Rcpp, their package library says "A Renjin-specific version of this package is available."[1]

Looks like Renjin can also be used from GNU R as an R package[2]. I'd assume any installed R package should also work in conjunction with it.

Admittedly, I haven't tried Renjin, but only just found it and thought it was quite interesting.

[1] http://packages.renjin.org/package/org.renjin.cran/Rcpp

[2] http://docs.renjin.org/en/latest/package/index.html#using-re...

Re: Renjin: a JVM-based interpreter for the R language

#4

Post by eggy » Fri, Nov 03, 2017, 12:20 PM UTC

R's wealth of libraries and syntax was always appealing to me, so maybe now I will look at how compatible and faster Renjin might be.

Re: Renjin: a JVM-based interpreter for the R language

#5

Post by michaelmior » Fri, Nov 03, 2017, 12:41 PM UTC

phillc73 wrote: post #3

stewbrew wrote: post #2

IMHO the crucial question is whether users can use libraries that load native libraries and/or make use of rcpp. The docs make me think it's not possible.

Regarding Rcpp, their package library says "A Renjin-specific version of this package is available."[1] Looks like Renjin can also be used from GNU R as an R package[2]. I'd assume any installed R package should also work in conjunction with it. Admittedly, I haven't tried Renjin, but only just found it and thought it was quite interesting. [1] http://packages.renjin.org/package/org.renjin.cran/Rcpp [2] http://docs.r…

Even just using Renjin to be able to access Java code within R seems super useful.

Re: Renjin: a JVM-based interpreter for the R language

#6

Post by sorokod » Fri, Nov 03, 2017, 12:46 PM UTC

stewbrew wrote: post #2

IMHO the crucial question is whether users can use libraries that load native libraries and/or make use of rcpp. The docs make me think it's not possible.

From the documentation [1]:

"As a service, BeDataDriven provides a repository with all CRAN (the Comprehensive R Archive Network) and BioConductor packages at http://packages.renjin.org. The packages in this repository are built and packaged for use with Renjin. Not all packages can be built for Renjin so please consult the repository to see if your favorite package is available for Renjin."

[1] http://docs.renjin.org/en/latest/interactive/index.html#prer...

Re: Renjin: a JVM-based interpreter for the R language

#7

Post by haifeng » Fri, Nov 03, 2017, 12:47 PM UTC

There is a java/scala project providing R like statistical computation:

http://haifengl.github.io/smile/linear-algebra.html

Re: Renjin: a JVM-based interpreter for the R language

#8

Post by Annatar » Fri, Nov 03, 2017, 12:56 PM UTC

I build and maintain the R stack in my organization. A good portion of the R core is written in Fortran for maximum performance and efficiency; the rest is in C and C++. Why would I want an interpreted, just-in-time, garbage collected version of R in a JVM when I can run at full speed on the real thing?

Re: Renjin: a JVM-based interpreter for the R language

#9

Post by Annatar » Fri, Nov 03, 2017, 1:00 PM UTC

sorokod wrote: post #6

stewbrew wrote: post #2

IMHO the crucial question is whether users can use libraries that load native libraries and/or make use of rcpp. The docs make me think it's not possible.

From the documentation [1]: "As a service, BeDataDriven provides a repository with all CRAN (the Comprehensive R Archive Network) and BioConductor packages at http://packages.renjin.org . The packages in this repository are built and packaged for use with Renjin. Not all packages can be built for Renjin so please consult the repository to see if your favorite package is available for Renjin." [1] http://docs.renjin.o…

Yes. Renjin isn’t even a complete implementation of R and I don’t believe that a Java JIT will ever beat Fortran in performance. I’d sure like to see some evidence of JIT R beating the Fortran implementation. And then there is the memory inefficiency of Java. So again I ask: why?

Re: Renjin: a JVM-based interpreter for the R language

#10

Post by kitd » Fri, Nov 03, 2017, 1:08 PM UTC

Annatar wrote: post #8

I build and maintain the R stack in my organization. A good portion of the R core is written in Fortran for maximum performance and efficiency; the rest is in C and C++. Why would I want an interpreted, just-in-time, garbage collected version of R in a JVM when I can run at full speed on the real thing?

> interpreted, just-in-time,

For clarification, the JVM JIT-compiles the most frequently used blocks of bytecode to machine code, so the bulk of the heavy lifting is not interpreted.

The benefit of doing it this way is that compilation can be optimised based on the runtime-characteristics of the code, not compiler judgement. Cases of JVM code running faster than equivalent C/C++ code are not uncommon.

Aside from that, access to Java libraries (eg for integration) may be important to some shops.