Abstract: The open source RFortran library is introduced as a convenient tool for accessing the functionality and packages of the R programming language from Fortran programs. It significantly enhances Fortran programming by providing a set of easy-to-use functions that enable access to R's very rapidly growing statistical, numerical and visualization capabilities, and support a richer and more interactive model development, debugging and analysis setup. RFortran differs from current approaches that require calling Fortran Dynamic link libraries (DLL) from R, and instead enables the Fortran program to transfer data to/from R and invoke R-based procedures via the R command interpreter. More generally, RFortran obviates the need to re-organize Fortran code into DLLs callable from R, or to re-write existing R packages in Fortran, or to jointly compile their Fortran code with the R language itself. Code snippets illustrate the basic transfer of data and commmands to and from R using RFortran, while two case studies discuss its advantages and limitations in realistic environmental modelling applications. These case studies include the generation of automated and interactive inference diagnostics in hydrological model calibration, and the integration of R statistical packages into a Fortran-based numerical quadrature code for joint probability analysis of coastal flooding using numerical hydraulic models. Currently, RFortran uses the Component Object Model (COM) interface for data/command transfer and is supported on the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Intel and Compaq Visual Fortran compilers. Extending its support to other operating systems and compilers is planned for the future. We hope that RFortran expedites method and software development for scientists and engineers with primary programming expertise in Fortran, but who wish to take advantage of R's extensive statistical, mathematical and visualization packages by calling them from their Fortran code. Further information can be found at www.rfortran.org.

Abstract: This short article explores the statistical programming environment R as a sonification interface using the add-on package playitbyr, currently in a pre-alpha stage of development. R’s growing and vibrant community of users is a promising audience for sonification tools, and sonification can provide a welcome addition to R’s arsenal of tools for making sense of multidimensional data. playitbyr attempts to provide intuitive functions and data structures for mapping data to sonic parameters, using MIDI or Csound for synthesis. 1. R’S POTENTIAL AS A SONIFICATION PLATFORM Why should auditory display researchers and programmers care about R? R [1] is a free and open source programming language geared towards statistics and data analysis, allowing the analyst to work with data and simulations interactively. In Muenchen’s [2] recent 2011 estimates, its academic popularity is only eclipsed by the proprietary statistical software giants SAS, SPSS, and Stata. A 2009 New York Times article [3] highlights the growing use of R in companies such as Pfizer, Google, Shell, and Bank of America, while the New York Times Graphics Department itself uses R to develop visualizations [4]. R has a large and active user base with an exponentially growing number of add-on packages and more blogs and mailing list activity than any other statistical package [2]. Sonification fits well into the R community’s penchant for experimentation and trying new techniques, yet disappointingly few implementations currently exist. In 2002, Heymann and Hanson [5] sonified the Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm and developed new tools for working with sound in R, but neither of the authors nor the general R community have followed up on this. This is not surprising, given the lack of convenient tools accessible from within an R session that allow high-level manipulation or mapping of sound. Neuwirth [6] provides an initial attempt of using Csound from R with his Rcsound package. However, this provides just a few basic functions for sonifying data. It has not been updated since 2004 and internet searches for the package only come up with a single publication and Neuwirth’s own mailing-list comments, suggesting little interest. The experimental playitbyr add-on package for R attempts to fill this gap. playitbyr provides a high-level interface from the R command line to map data and statistical summaries to sonic parameters, with its syntax modeled after a popular graphics add-on package called ggplot2 [7]. Realizations are currently provided through simple MIDI and Csound interfaces. To take advantage of all features of the package, the user should install the public-domain program csvmidi, available at http://www.fourmilab.ch/webtools/midicsv/, a media player with basic General MIDI support, and the Csound programming language, available from http://www.csounds.com. Currently in a pre-alpha stage of development, the package can be downloaded from the project web site at http://playitbyr.rforge.r-project.org/ or installed directly in an R session with the command: install.packages("playitbyr", repos="http://r-forge.r-project.org") Then, the package can be loaded: