[R] Diagnosing trouble with R-2.0, Fedora Core 2, and Rcmdf

[John Fox]

Dear Paul,

I'm currently out of town, limiting a bit my ability to answer these
questions definitively, but I'll give it a shot (hoping that my memory
isn't faulty):

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 13:08:39 -0500
 Paul Johnson <pauljohn at ku.edu> wrote:
> Greetings, R-help!
> 
> On 2 Fedora Core 2 Linux systems, i've completely erased the previous
> R and all packages and then installed R-2.0 and installed fresh
> packages.
> 
> In using Rcmdr, I see some trouble and I wonder if other people see
> this and if it is due to the tcl/tk, or R, or Rcmdr.  (If readers
> have not yet tried Rcmdr, I recommend it not just because of the GUI
> it provides, but also because Prof. Fox has created several very
> handy commands, like scatter3d, which make it possible to use
> advanced packages like rgl. Rcmdr provides several very handy wrapper
> commands that "just work" and users don't have to fuss over so many
> details! And, if you are new at R, you can use pull down menus and
> then Rcmdr displays the commands that correspond with those menu
> options. Very educational!)
> 
> In no particular order, here are the issues I see with R-2.0 and
> Rcmdr
> 
> 1. In the panel to select a dataset from a package (nenu: Data/Data
> in packages), I can type in the name of a dataset, but the GUI will
> not let me choose the name of a package from which to select a
> dataset. Nothing happens when I pick a package name.  (With previous
> R/Rcmdr, I did not have this trouble).
> 

The problem is that the Rcmdr code doesn't quote the name of the
package. I believe that I've fixed this problem, but haven't posted the
fixed version either to my web site or to CRAN.

> 2. When using Rcmdr, some of the output from commands shows in the
> Rcmdr bottom window, but some is sent to the xterm in which R was
> started. For example, with a scatter3d() command, if I add the option
> model.summary=T, the model summary shows in the xterm.  But some
> other models show results in the bottom pane of Rcmdr.  And, it seems
> to me, there are some commands in which I've noticed some of the
> output going to the Rcmdr bottom buffer and  some to the xterm.
> 

As I recall, I've fixed this problem as well, but perhaps not in a
completely general way. Again, I haven't yet released the fixed
version.

> 3. When I want to exit Rcmdr and choose the pull down "exit from
> Commander and R", I get a Segmentation Fault that closes Rcmdr and R.
> 

This I haven't seen before.

> 4. 3d plots do not display on the screen until I click in the rgl
> window that displays the graph.  This might be a video card/AGP
> driver problem, I suppose.  These systems have the NVidia FX5200
> cards and the NVidia proprietary X driver.  If other users don't see
> the same on other kinds of systems, I guess that will tell me where
> the problem lies.
> 

I believe that I've noticed this problem on a Quantian system.

> 5. At random times, I get an error tcl/tk window popping up with a
> message about MASS and categorical variables.  It says
> 

This reflects the first problem, and is produced by the way that the
Rcmdr initially suppresses and then reports warnings.

I'll check further when I return home.

Sorry for the problems.

John

> Error in data(package=parse(text=packageName));
> 'MASS' must be character string or NULL
> 
> It says that over and over, sometimes it has other package names, as
> in:
> 
> Error in data(package=parse(text=packageName));
> 'relimp' must be character string or NULL
> 
> These seem to be harmless?
> -- 
> Paul E. Johnson                       email: pauljohn at ku.edu
> Dept. of Political Science            http://lark.cc.ku.edu/~pauljohn
> 1541 Lilac Lane, Rm 504
> University of Kansas                  Office: (785) 864-9086
> Lawrence, Kansas 66044-3177           FAX: (785) 864-5700
> 
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--------------------------------
John Fox
Department of Sociology
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/