[R-pkgs] xlsReadWrite v1.5.2

[Hans-Peter Suter]

Natively read and write Excel (.xls) files. Supports Windows 32-bit only (atm).

A new version has been released:

-- changes --

o read.xls
  - new arguments 'checkNames'
  - recognize NA values according to a new 'naStrings' argument
  - recognize NaN values
  - recognize 'true', 'false' (not case-sensitive) as logical when
determing a class for data.frame column;
    when the value in the first cell is an integer, a numeric will be
assumed nevertheless
  - colnames are more consistent with R usage (X, X.1, V1, etc.)
  - matrices always have rownames (as in data.frame). With FALSE
rownames become (integer) 1:length(rows)
  - duplicated rownames no longer accepted
  - allow data with one row which is defined as being the colnames
(i.e. no 'real' data row)
  - colNames/colClasses can optionally contain an entry for the column
used for the rownames
o write.xls
  - error (instead of warning) when length of character colnames
doesn't fit data
  - write NA values according to the 'naStrings' (scalar) argument
  - write NaN values as 'NaN' string (instead of ending as #ZAHL!)
  - colNames can optionally contain an entry for the column used for
the rownames
o template location moved
  - new: R_HOME/library/xlsReadWrite/template/TemplateNew.xls
  - (old/erronous: R_HOME/library/xlsReadWrite/libs/template, reported
by B. Ripley)
o RUnit tests extended, loading simplified
o improve examples and run them on the regular version, polish docu

-- bugfixes --

o file: path may be absolute or relative to the current working directory.
  The 'relative' part was broken (feedback from several people)
o xls.getshlib: sometimes existing dll could not be replaced. Now uses path
  of loaded dll instead of lib.loc and path (reported by G. Grothendieck)
o use .Platform$r_arch for shlib path and R.version$platform in xls.getshlib
  to make pkg compatible with R2.12dev (reported and tips by B. Ripley)
o several fixes related to row/colnames in special cases (without data)

-- 'ecosystem' --

o issue tracking (developer) link change:
  - http://dev.swissr.org (was: https://redmine.swissr.org)
  - allow guest login and directly mention credentials


Cheers,
Hans-Peter