[Rd] new window cairo bundle Re: R/Sweave/cairo/freetype bug fix.

Hin-Tak Leung htl10 at users.sourceforge.net
Tue Apr 2 16:01:42 CEST 2013 

--- On Mon, 1/4/13, Hin-Tak Leung <htl10 at users.sourceforge.net> wrote:
> --- On Sat, 30/3/13, Hin-Tak Leung
> <htl10 at users.sourceforge.net>
> wrote:
> 
> > "... was committed to freetype in January and will form
> the
> > next release (2.4.12)". 
> 
> It is perhaps worth repeating the quote:  'The official
> R binaries for windows ... are compiled against static
> libraries of cairo 1.10.2 ... are firmly in the "do not work
> correctly" category'
> 
> The minimum version of cairo to work being 1.11.2. On closer
> examination, the official bundle (http://www.rforge.net/Cairo/files/cairo-current-win.tar.gz)
> is built with neither fontconfig nor freetype. So even if it
> is bumped to current version (1.12.x), it does not work
> correctly.

Here is a drop-in replacement for the above:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/outmodedbonsai/files/R/cairo-1.12.14%2Bft%2Bfc-win.tar.gz

Besides being over 2 years more up-to-date, cairo (1.12.14) is also built with fontconfig and freetype enabled, and freetype being 2.4.11 + back-ported patch (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=891457#c35) so at least there is a a better chance of R working correctly.

The full list of the tar ball is (a superset of the above, due to addition of fontconfig and freetype and their dependencies):
-------
cairo-1.12.14
pixman-0.26.2
libpng-1.5.13
zlib-1.2.7
fontconfig-2.10.1
freetype-2.4.11 (patched)
glib2-2.34.3
expat-2.1.0
bzip2-1.0.6
libffi-3.0.11
gettext-0.18.2
---------
This allows the C-based cairo bug demo (#c10) to build so I am sure it is sufficient for building windows R. At some stage I'll rebuild a less-buggy R 2.15.3 for windows, but not for a few weeks so if somebody wants to beat me to it, please feel free to do so.

> Perhaps also wasn't clear in the bugzilla thread - everybody
> from fontconfig/cairo/freetype involved knew it being the
> issue so it has never been explicitly spelled out - the
> problem was (is) with cairo's pdf/ps generation, aided by
> freetype.
> 
> > ------------------------------
> > On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 18:54 GMT Simon Urbanek wrote:
> > 
> > >On Mar 30, 2013, at 9:24 AM, Hin-Tak Leung wrote:
> > >
> > >> Perhaps that's too much details. There is
> (will be)
> > a new freetype because of cairo's unanticipated usage
> (which
> > R uses, among other cairo users). Most people should
> upgrade
> > or request an upgrade eventually, when they are
> > comfortable.
> > >> 
> > >
> > >Which versions are affected? R binary for OS X
> uses
> > freetype 2.4.11 (and cairo 1.12.14) so I just need to
> know
> > if there is an action item.
> > >
> > >Thanks,
> > >SImon
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >> --- On Sat, 30/3/13, peter dalgaard <pdalgd at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > >> 
> > >> Huh?
> > >> 
> > >> This is utterly incomprehensible without
> reading
> > the redhat
> > >> bugzilla, and even after reading, I'm not sure
> what
> > the
> > >> issue is. Something with bold Chinese fonts in
> X11,
> > but
> > >> maybe also affecting Latin fonts, ....?
> > >> 
> > >> Please explain yourself.
> > >> 
> > >> -pd
> > >> 
> > >> On Mar 30, 2013, at 09:25 , Hin-Tak Leung
> wrote:
> > >> 
> > >>> The problem was first seen with R/Sweave
> (#c0)
> > then
> > >> reproduced directly with cairo (#c10) and was
> > eventually
> > >> traced to freetype. The 5-part bug fix:
> > >>> 610ee58e07090ead529849b2a454bb6c503b4995
> > >>> da11e5e7647b668dee46fd0418ea5ecbc33ae3b2
> > >>> e1a2ac1900f2f16ec48fb4840a6b7965a8373c2b
> > >>> 869fb8c49ddf292d6daf4826172a308973d3e11f
> > >>> d56e544d653b09c657911629557ffc5277a503e3
> > >>> was committed to freetype in January and
> will
> > form the
> > >> next release (2.4.12). They were back ported
> to
> > 2.4.11
> > >>> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=891457#c35
> > >>> and the redhat people had further
> back-ported
> > it to
> > >> 2.4.10 for fedora 18/19 (#c51).
> > >>> 
> > >>> The freetype people had reproduced the
> problem
> > with a
> > >> latin font, so this affects most people,
> unlike
> > what the
> > >> initial report (#c0) suggests.
> > >>> 
> > >>> Since freetype is part of X11, most
> unix/linux
> > users
> > >> would be understandably nervous about breaking
> X
> > (see #c45
> > >> for screenshot of broken gnome terminal!) and
> > should wait up
> > >> to a year before the new and not-yet-released
> > 2.4.12 becomes
> > >> an official upgrade; or contact their
> favourite
> > unix vendors
> > >> and/or Apple for upgrades. AFAIK, current
> > up-to-date linux
> > >> distributions ships the rather older 2.4.10,
> with
> > the
> > >> exception of fedora 18/19 (#c51). Mac OS X
> 10.5
> > ships
> > >> freetype 2.3.5 as part of X11; I haven't
> bother
> > looking up
> > >> later Mac OS X's.
> > >>> 
> > >>> The official R binaries for windows and
> mac OS
> > X are
> > >> compiled against static libraries of cairo
> 1.10.2
> > (over 2
> > >> years old), and cairo 1.11.2 and freetype
> 2.4.4
> > >> respectively, and are firmly in the "do not
> work
> > correctly"
> > >> category.
> > >>> 
> > >>> The long and short of the story is that
> > R/Sweave uses a
> > >> feature of cairo which wasn't implemented
> before
> > cairo
> > >> 1.11.2 (#c13, Jan 2011), which in turn depends
> on a
> > feature
> > >> of freetype that has been around since 2005
> but did
> > not
> > >> anticipate cairo's usage. It is commendable
> that
> > the
> > >> freetype people did not refer to cairo's usage
> as
> > "misuse"
> > >> but took the patience to address the problem,
> > unlike some
> > >> group's style.
> > >>> 
> > >>> It has been an interesting few months
> returning
> > to
> > >> freetype after about 17 years, I think.
> > >>> 
> > >>> Here is how to look up what version of
> freetype
> > -
> > >> libfreetype.so.x.y.z for most unix platforms,
> and
> > >> /usr/X11/lib/libfreetype.x.y.z.dylib on Mac OS
> X:
> > >>> 
> > >>> (excerpt from docs/VERSION.DLL)
> > >>> 
> > >>>      version   
> > >> x.y.z   date of release
> > >>>      2.4.11 
> > >>    6.10.0  Dec 2012
> > >>>      2.4.10 
> > >>    6.9.0   June 2012
> > >>>      2.4.9 
> >    
> > >> 6.8.1   March 2012
> > >>> ...
> > >>>      2.4.4 
> >    
> > >> 6.6.2   Nov 2010  (official R
> > mac
> > >> binaries)
> > >>> ...
> > >>>      2.3.5 
> >    
> > >> 6.3.16  July 2007 (Mac OS X 10.5)
> > >>> 
> > >>> 
> > >>>
> ______________________________________________
> > >>> R-devel at r-project.org
> > >> mailing list
> > >>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> > >> 
> > >> -- 
> > >> Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
> > >> Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business
> School
> > >> Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
> > >> Phone: (+45)38153501
> > >> Email: pd.mes at cbs.dk 
> > >> Priv: PDalgd at gmail.com
> > >> 
> > >> 
> > >> 
> > >> 
> > >> 
> > >> 
> > >> 
> > >> 
> > >> 
> > >> 
> > >>
> ______________________________________________
> > >> R-devel at r-project.org
> > mailing list
> > >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> > >> 
> > >> 
> > >
> > 
> >
>

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