[Rd] getGraphicsEvent() alternative for cairo graphics device?

[frederik at ofb.net]

Hi Paul,

Just checking in to see what the status is.

>From my perspective it seems logical to split off X11 into a separate
package, so development can proceed at a reasonable rate, but I
haven't yet tried to see if that's even possible.

Thanks,

Frederick

On Tue, Jul 26, 2016 at 09:23:35AM +1200, Paul Murrell wrote:
> Hi
> 
> Taking a look at those patches is now on my todo list, so I may be in touch
> with both of you at some point to request some testing.
> 
> Paul
> 
> On 26/07/16 07:17, frederik at ofb.net wrote:
> > Dear Daniel Greenidge,
> > 
> > To enable getGraphicsEvent on Cairo, you have two patches to choose
> > from:
> > 
> > https://bugs.r-project.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=14364
> > https://bugs.r-project.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=16951
> > 
> > The second one is by me, and the first one is from five years ago by
> > Hugo Mildenberger.
> > 
> > Both patches are very simple, they move some lines enabling
> > getGrahpicsEvent outside of a if(!cairo) statement. My patch also adds
> > the ability to execute code (e.g. for animation) while the interface
> > is idle.
> > 
> > Top guy Duncan Murdoch has expressed that he doesn't have time to work
> > on applying these patches, and I haven't had any responses from the
> > rest of the R Core Team. I was thinking that perhaps your best bet is
> > to try to create a package called e.g. "X11-fixes" which people can
> > use to get a better X11 library (there is also a bug waiting to be
> > fixed from 2001:
> > https://bugs.r-project.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=16702).
> > 
> > I don't know if CRAN would accept such a package, or if you'd have to
> > distribute it via GitHub, but R has excellent tools to facilitate the
> > distribution of code via packages. Whether the R kernel exports enough
> > functions to allow a package to take over event handling, I'm not
> > sure. I was intending to look more into the details of this
> > possibility but haven't had time.
> > 
> > Best wishes,
> > 
> > Frederick
> > 
> > On Mon, Jul 25, 2016 at 02:15:59PM -0400, Daniel Greenidge wrote:
> > > Hi all,
> > > 
> > > I'm writing an interactive plotting function for viewing fMRI
> > > datasets. Currently, I get keypresses using
> > > grDevices::getGraphicsEvent().
> > > 
> > > Unfortunately getGraphicsEvent() only supports the X11(type="Xlib")
> > > graphics device on Unix systems. The Xlib device doesn't support
> > > buffering (i.e. dev.hold() and dev.flush()), so redrawing the plots
> > > causes lots of flickering.
> > > 
> > > Is there a way to get keypresses while using the cairo graphics
> > > device? Alternatively, is there a way to prevent flickering with the
> > > Xlib graphics device?
> > > 
> > > Best,
> > > Daniel Greenidge
> > > 
> > > ______________________________________________
> > > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> > > 
> > 
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> > 
> 
> -- 
> Dr Paul Murrell
> Department of Statistics
> The University of Auckland
> Private Bag 92019
> Auckland
> New Zealand
> 64 9 3737599 x85392
> paul at stat.auckland.ac.nz
> http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/
>