[R] Rcmdr X11 protocol error message

[Michael Bibo]

>John Fox <jfox <at> mcmaster.ca> writes:

> 
> Dear Peter and Michael,
> 
> Peter: Thank you for fielding this question. Michael initially contacted me
> directly, and I suggested that he write to the list since I didn't know the
> possible source of the problem, had never seen it (either under Windows or
> Linux), and never had a report of it before.
> 
> Michael: Does this problem occur only with certain Rcmdr dialogs or
> generally? 
> 
> I'd also be curious to learn whether anyone else has experienced this
> problem, and whether anyone has run the Rcmdr package under Mandrake Linux
> without a problem.
> 
> Regards,
>  John


John,

The error messages occur most frequently in relation to plot/graphics windows,
but also with dialogue boxes, and occasionally even just when output is written
to the output window.  They can occur when windows/dialogue boxes are opening or
being closed.  But they do not occur consistently - they do not always occur,
not even with the same plots, dialogues etc.  Exactly the same commands run
directly from the console do not produce the same error messages.

I have been experimenting with drawing plots from random data generated in
Rcmdr, as opposed to imported spss data files etc, but that seems to make little
difference.

I have run R Commander under Linux Mandrake myself prior to this without this
problem (R 1.8.1/1.9.0 & Mandrake 9.1/9.2).  Unfortunately, a new version of
Mandrake, with an updated XFree86, the new version of R (1.9.1) and updates to R
Commander all happened around the same time.  And previously I have installed R
from RPM, while this time I took the plunge and installed from source.  I guess
that's what you would call confounding your variables.

I would like to point out to people, though, that despite these error messages,
R Commander is still working.  And under Windows I have had no such issues.  I
think a GUI such as R Commander has an important role to play in attracting
users to R from other, commercial applications.


Michael Bibo
Queensland Health

michael_bibo at health.qld.gov.au