Log Message:
Update R-gdata to 2.4.2

CHANGES IN 2.4.2 (2008-05-11)
-----------------------------

- Enhancements and bug fixes for read.xls() and xls2csv():

    - More informative log messages when verbose=TRUE

    - File paths containing spaces or other non-traditional characters
      are now properly handled

    - Better error messages, particularly when perl fails to generate
      an output .csv file.

    - The 'shortcut' character "~" (meaning user's home directory) is
      now properly handled in file paths.

    - XLS files created by OpenOffice are now properly handled.  Thanks to
       Robert Burns for pointing out the patch
       (http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=7206)

CHANGES IN 2.4.1 (2008-03-24)
-----------------------------

- Update perl libraries needed by xls2csv() and read.xls()
  to latest available versions on CRAN.

- Add read.xls() to exported function list

- Correct iris.xls example file.  It didn't contain the complete
  & properly formatted iris data set. Fixed.

- Fix typo in win32 example for read.xls()

CHANGES IN 2.4.0 (2008-01-30)
-----------------------------

- The keep() function now includes an 'all' argument to specify how
  objects with names starting with '.' are handled.

- keep() now shows an informative warning message when a requested
  object does not exist

- New vignette "Mapping Levels of a Factor" describing the use of
  mapLevels().

- New vignette "Working with Unknown Values" describing the use of
  isUnknown() and unknownToNA().

- Several enhancements to read.xls() (thanks to Gabor Grothendieck):

  - New function xls2csv(), which handles converting an xls file
    to a csv file and returns a connection to the
    temporary csv file

  - xls2csv() and read.xls() both allow a file or a url to be specified

  - read.xls() has a new 'pattern' argument which, if supplied,
    will ignore everything prior to the first line in th csv file
    that matches the pattern.  This is typically used if there
    are a variable number of comment lines prior to the header
    in which case one can specify one of the column
    headings as the pattern.  read.xls should
    be compatible with the old read.xls.

- Minor fixes to drop.levels(), is.what().

- Implementation of unit tests for most functions.

CHANGES IN 2.3.1 (2006-10-29)
-----------------------------

- Arguments as well as their position of reorder.factor have been changed
  to conform with reorder.factor method in stats package, due to collision
  bug. Argument 'make.ordered' is now 'order' and old argument 'order' is
  now 'new.order'! Therefore, you have to implicitly specify new.order i.e.

  reorder(trt, new.order=c("PLACEBO", "300 MG", "600 \ 
MG", "1200 MG"))

- trim() gains ... argument.

- Added "unknown" methods for matrices.

- Added c() method for factors based on mapLevels() functions.

- Added write.fwf, which writes file in *F*ixed *W*idth *F*ormat.

CHANGES FROM 2.1.X to 2.3.0 (2006-09-19)
---------------------------------------

- Added mapLevels(), which produces a map with information on levels and/or
  internal integer codes.  Contributed by Gregor Gorjanc.

- Extended dropLevels() to work on the factors contained in a data
  frame, as well as individual factors.

- Add unknown(), which changes given unknown value to NA and vice
  versa. Contributed by Gregor Gorjanc.

- Extended trim() to handle a variety of data types data.frames,
  lists, factors, etc.  Code changes contributed by Gregor Gorjanc.

- Added resample() command that acts like sample() except that it
  _always_ samples from the arguments provided, even if only a single
  argument is present.  This differs from sample() which behaves
  differently in this case.

- Updated my email address.