[R] graphics

[Kurt Hornik]

>>>>> Peter Dalgaard BSA writes:

> Martin Maechler <maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch> writes:
>> BUT, for a first "quick fix" : Why not change X11's argument
>> pointsize = 12
>> to
>> pointsize = .Options$X11pointsize
>> (we already have X11colortype !).

> Which is a mess! We also have

> .PostScript.Options$pointsize

> So wouldn't it be more obvious to use

> .X11.Options$pointsize

> (and set it with X11.options(pointsize=12))?

Why would we need a separate options variable anyway?  We might as well
do .Options$PostScript.foo instead ... or .Options$PostScript$foo ...

If we do the above we might also want an X11.options() in analogy to the
ps.options() which already exists, and perhaps also pictex.options()
etc.

???

> If we go to 10pt default, we also need to discuss the multiframe
> scaling issue. The current rules are that if there is two rows and/or
> columns, reduce font size to 80%, if there are three or more reduce to
> 50% and a 5pt font @100dpi is a tad small. Note that this rule is
> *device independent*, so one would have to check that it still looks
> reasonable on postscript and windows. I think it works out OK if one
> sets the rule to 60% giving a 6pt font, but I'd like someone elses
> eyes on that.

>> Now back to the feature request:
>> 
>> Do we want  par.defaults() for this?
>> It would have the same arguments as par()  plus additional
>> device = .Options$device
>> with further possibility   
>> device = "all"
>> i.e., by default,  par.defaults()  would set things only for the default
>> device, but there'd be a possibility to set these for all devices.
>> 
>> Note that
>> -  This would lead to considerable side effects.
>> [Starting a device and setting par()s would not be portable,
>> for complete portability you'd have to first set (or reset) the
>> par.defaults()]
>> -  for  device = "postscript", 
>> we could allow further arguments as those of ps.options() and postscript()
>> and e.g. for device = "X11" ( = default on non-gnome Unix),
>> one should allow arguments of X11/x11() such as pointsize, colortype, ...
>> 
>> -----
>> 
>> When feature requesting: What I have wanted more than once is an
>> par(reset = TRUE)
>> which would set all the par()s back to how they were when the device was
>> opened.   
>> 
>> par.defaults(reset = TRUE)
>> 
>> would analogously remove all `site/user specific' par defaults
>> (effect: as if  par.defaults() was never set).

> Hmm. I'm not so sure we're really gaining much from an elaborate
> par.default() function. If one desires, one could do it via the
> startup function, simply by a call to par based on the options).

> For instance, try changing X11 to

> X11<-function (display = "", width = 7, height = 7, pointsize = 12, 
>     gamma = 1, colortype = options()$X11colortype, maxcubesize = 256) 
> {
>     .Internal(X11(display, width, height, pointsize, gamma, colortype, 
>     maxcubesize))
>     par(ask=T)
> }

> and then

> example(barplot)
> dev.off()
> par(ask=F)
> example(barplot)

Agreed.

-k
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