Proposal for updating the R container

[rvalieris]

Hello there, I'm interested in helping update the R container,
after spending some time working on the build errors I have written a patch,
but I want to discuss the changes before opening a PR because they are significant:

• Upgrade R to 4.4
  the latest R available on Kaggle is 3 years old now, it's about time we get an update ;)

• Drop mxnet
  as of 2023-09, the project has been retired.

• Remove packages: rgdal, rgeos
  these packages have been removed from CRAN:
  Archived on 2023-10-16 at the request of the maintainer. Consider using 'sf' or 'terra' instead.

• Install the latest versions of the packages: randomForest, terra, ranger, imager
  the version of these packages is fixed on package_installs.R,
  the comments imply there is context for these ( internal bug tracker ?), but it's not clear why or if they are still needed.

• Use pak to install packages
  The build is currently failling here:

r$> utils:::.make_dependency_list(pkgs, allPackages, recursive = TRUE)
Error in tools:::.extract_dependency_package_names(x) :
  non-character argument

r$> traceback()
4: tools:::.extract_dependency_package_names(x)
3: unique.default(tools:::.extract_dependency_package_names(x))
2: .clean_up_dependencies(info2[i, ])
1: utils:::.make_dependency_list(pkgs, allPackages, recursive = TRUE)

package_installs.R uses utils:::.make_dependency_list,
this is an internal function and is prone to changing its behavior without warning,
which is what I think happened here.

pak can do parallel downloads and parallel installation of packages, among other features.

I think that by using pak most of the package_installs.R code becomes redundant, and the script can be simplified significantly.

of course, none of these are required but it is what I think would be better, let me know what you think.

[calderjo]

Hi rvalieris, thank you for reaching out and starting this conversation. With all the cool things going on in the python world, we most definitely left r image unattended. I starting to gain ownership of both python and r docker images, so I'm looking forward to working with the community on improving the r image.

I set up some goals for myself in the near future (in order):

• unblock the build and get a new release going with the current r version (2 weeks from now).
• upgrade to newer r version, aiming for 4.4 (no timeline), not 100% up to date on what is blocking this so i need to review this.

I am most definitely open to receiving/reviewing PR from you.

[calderjo]

hey, we might be a step closer to that r4.4.0 image, then i expected

#79