from the manual page for getOption:

  'device': a character string giving the name of a function, or the
          function object itself, which when called creates a new
          graphics device of the default type for that session.  The
          value of this option defaults to the normal screen device
          (e.g., 'X11', 'windows' or 'quartz') for an interactive
          session, and 'pdf' in batch use or if a screen is not
          available.  If set to the name of a device, the device is
          looked for first from the global environment (that is down
          the usual search path) and then in the 'grDevices' namespace.

          The default values in interactive and non-interactive
          sessions are configurable via environment variables
          'R_INTERACTIVE_DEVICE' and 'R_DEFAULT_DEVICE' respectively.

note -- 'or the function object itself'

what exactly is the problem?

2009/5/18 "M. Gonzalo Claros Díaz" <claros@uma.es>

> Hallo people,
>
> I have just updated my R to v2.9.0 in my OSX and I have obtained an strange
> message. When I try to get which is my device with the command that worked
> fine previously
>
>        getOption("device")
>
> I get very strange "device". I get the following "code" instead of a
> variable:
> function (title, width, height, pointsize, family, fontsmooth,
>    antialias, type, file = NULL, bg, canvas, dpi)
> {
>    new <- list()
>    if (!missing(title))
>        new$title <- title
>    if (!missing(width))
>        new$width <- width
>    if (!missing(height))
>        new$height <- height
>    if (!missing(pointsize))
>        new$pointsize <- pointsize
>    if (!missing(family))
>        new$family <- family
>    if (!missing(fontsmooth))
>        new$fontsmooth <- fontsmooth
>    if (!missing(antialias))
>        new$antialias <- antialias
>    if (!missing(bg))
>        new$bg <- bg
>    if (!missing(canvas))
>        new$canvas <- canvas
>    if (!missing(type))
>        new$type <- type
>    if (!missing(dpi))
>        new$dpi <- dpi
>    if (!checkIntFormat(new$title))
>        stop("invalid 'title'")
>    if (!is.null(file) && !checkIntFormat(file))
>        stop("invalid 'file'")
>    d <- check.options(new, name.opt = ".quartz.Options", envir =
> .Quartzenv)
>    .External(CQuartz, d$type, file, d$width, d$height, d$pointsize,
>        d$family, d$antialias, d$fontsmooth, d$title, d$bg, d$canvas,
>        if (is.na(d$dpi)) NULL else d$dpi)
>    invisible()
> }
> <environment: namespace:grDevices>
>
>
> Of course, option("device") returns the same message, although the rest of
> the options() are fine. And I can of course open x11() and quartz() graphics
> windows without any problem
>
> Can someone explain why I have not the right answer?
>
> Gonzalo
>
> $> sessionInfo()
> R version 2.9.0 (2009-04-17)
> i386-apple-darwin8.11.1
>
> locale:
> es_ES.UTF-8/es_ES.UTF-8/C/C/es_ES.UTF-8/es_ES.UTF-8
>
> attached base packages:
> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
>
>
> --
> «Donde me he equivocado, soy el único responsable; donde no,
> el mérito es de los que me han ayudado»
> ================================================================
> M. Gonzalo CLAROS                                  claros@uma.es
> Dpt. Biología Molecular y Bioquímica
> Facultad de Ciencias                      Fax: (+34) 95 213 2041
> Universidad de Málaga                Tel: (+34) 95 213 7284/7653
> E-29071 Málaga (Spain)               http://www.bmbq.uma.es/fmp/
>
> _______________________________________________
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> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/bioconductor
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>



-- 
Vincent Carey, PhD
Biostatistics, Channing Lab
617 525 2265

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