Activate Run the libLAS C++ library within R

Question

I would like to use the libLAS C/C++ library functions within R to import, analyse, export terrestrial lidar data. libLAS is a C/C++ library for reading and writing the very common LAS LiDAR format ( http://liblas.org/index.html ).

Would it be possible to use the Rcpp package to run this library (or other packages)? http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/code/rcpp.html

Or should I compile and install it in order to use it following the compilation instructions http://liblas.org/compilation.html ? I am working on a MacOSx 10.6.5. As such I could also use it within Open Source GIS GRASS as described in the following wiki http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/LIDAR#Micro-tutorial_for_LAS_data_import .

All advice is welcome related to reading and processing LIDAR data with R/GRASS. Thanks, Jan

Answer 1

For the question

Would it be possible to use the Rcpp package to run this library (or other packages)?

the answer is whopping Yup! as using it for glueing R to a given C/C++ library was pretty much the reason Rcpp was written for. Come and see the documentation and/or the rcpp-devel list for examples. There is some exciting new stuff happening with Rcpp modules but you can also get going the old-fashioned way of writing your wrapper. Rcpp makes mapping and R and C++ types (in both directions) a lot easier.