[Rd] type.convert (PR#13646)

[William Dunlap]

I can reproduce the difference that Stefan saw, depending
on whether or not I start Rgui with the flags
    --no-environ --no-Rconsole
I think it boils down to the isBlankString() function.
For the string "\247" it returns 1 when those flags are
not present and 0 when they are.  isBlankString does use
some locale-specific functions:
Rboolean isBlankString(const char *s)
{
#ifdef SUPPORT_MBCS
    if(mbcslocale) {
        wchar_t wc; int used; mbstate_t mb_st;
        mbs_init(&mb_st);
        while( (used = Mbrtowc(&wc, s, MB_CUR_MAX, &mb_st)) ) {
            if(!iswspace(wc)) return FALSE;
            s += used;
        }
    } else
#endif
        while (*s)
            if (!isspace((int)*s++)) return FALSE;
    return TRUE;
}

I was using R 2.8.1, downloaded precompiled from CRAN, on Windows
XP SP3. The outputs of sessionInfo() and Sys.getenv() are the same
in both sessions.  'Process Explorer' shows that the 2 sessions
have the same dll's opened.

> sessionInfo()
R version 2.8.1 (2008-12-22) 
i386-pc-mingw32 

locale:
LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252;LC_CTYPE=English_United States.1252;LC_MONETARY=English_United States.1252;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=English_United States.1252

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base     
> 

I did the test with a dll compiled from
#include <R.h>
#include <R_ext/Utils.h>

void test_isBlankString(char **s, int *res)
{
   *res = isBlankString(*s) ;
}

and called by .C("test_isBlankString","\247",-1L)

I don't see the difference while running a version of 2.9.0(devel)
compiled locally on 11 March 2009 (from svn rev 48116).

Bill Dunlap
TIBCO Software Inc - Spotfire Division
wdunlap tibco.com  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-devel-bounces at r-project.org 
> [mailto:r-devel-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Peter Dalgaard
> Sent: Friday, April 10, 2009 2:03 AM
> To: Raberger, Stefan
> Cc: R-bugs at r-project.org; r-devel at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: Re: [Rd] type.convert (PR#13646)
> 
> Raberger, Stefan wrote:
> > Hi Peter,
> > 
> > each of the four PCs actually has the same locale setting: 
> > 
> >> Sys.setlocale("LC_CTYPE")
> > [1] "German_Austria.1252"
> > 
> > (all the other settings returned by invoking 
> Sys.getlocale() are identical as well).
> > 
> > Just to be sure (because it's displayed incorrectly in my 
> browser on the bugtracking page): the character inside the 
> type.convert function ought to be a "section"-sign (HTML Code 
> &#167; or &sect; , in R "\247", and not a dot ".").
> 
> I saw it correctly. It's "\302\247" in UTF8 locales, which is 
> of course 
> the reason I suspected locale settings, but I can't seem to 
> trigger the 
> NA behaviour.
> 
> I'm at a loss here, but some ideas:
> 
> In the cases where it returns NA, what type is it? (I.e. 
> storage.mode(type.convert(....)))
> 
> What do you get from
> 
>  > charToRaw("§")
> [1] c2 a7
> 
> (a7, presumably, but better check).
> 
> -p
> 
> > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> > Von: Peter Dalgaard [mailto:p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk] 
> > Gesendet: Donnerstag, 09. April 2009 19:26
> > An: Raberger, Stefan
> > Cc: r-devel at stat.math.ethz.ch; R-bugs at r-project.org
> > Betreff: Re: [Rd] type.convert (PR#13646)
> > 
> > s.raberger at innovest.at wrote:
> >> Full_Name: Stefan Raberger
> >> Version: 2.8.1
> >> OS: Windows XP
> >> Submission from: (NULL) (213.185.163.242)
> >>
> >>
> >> Hi there, 
> >>
> >> I recently noticed some strange behaviour of the command 
> "type.convert",
> >> depending on the startup mode used. But there also seems 
> to be different
> >> behaviour on different PCs (all running the same OS and 
> the same version of R).
> >>
> >> On PC1:
> >> When I start R in SDI mode (RGui --no-save --no-restore 
> --no-site-file
> >> --no-init-file --no-environ) and try to convert, the result is
> >>
> >>> type.convert("§")
> >> [1] NA
> >>
> >> If I use MDI mode (RGui --no-save --no-restore 
> --no-site-file --no-init-file
> >> --no-environ --no-Rconsole) instead, the result is
> >>
> >>> type.convert("§")
> >> [1] §
> >> Levels: §
> >>
> >> On PC2 it's exactly the other way round (SDI: §, MDI: NA), 
> on PC2 the result is
> >> always NA, independent of the startup mode used, and on 
> PC4 it's always §.
> >>
> >> What's the result I should expect R to return, and why is 
> it different in so
> >> many cases?
> > 
> > Which locale does R think it is in in the four cases? 
> > (Sys.setlocale("LC_CTYPE"), I think).
> > 
> > Might well not be a bug (so please don't file it as one).
> > 
> >> Any help is much appreciated!
> >> Regards, Stefan
> >>
> >> ______________________________________________
> >> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> -- 
>     O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Øster Farimagsgade 5, Entr.B
>    c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     PO Box 2099, 1014 Cph. K
>   (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph:  
> (+45) 35327918
> ~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)              FAX: 
> (+45) 35327907
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>