[R] missing X11 graphics title bar

[Steven K Thompson]

Thanks, Peter.  I think that helps narrow down the problem.  The
change of window manager seems to be a pretty decent solution.  If the bug gets
fixed or a workaround discovered, though, there might be some
advantage to going with the gnome default.  Thanks for the keystroke
information (on my laptop the resize one is alt fn10).  

Steve

On Sun, Feb 13, 2005 at 10:40:17AM +0100, Peter Dalgaard wrote:
> skt at stat.psu.edu (Steven K Thompson) writes:
> 
> > I have on occasion had the problem of missing title bars on X11
> > graphics windows when using R, and would like to know what others have
> > found in terms of the occurance, source, or solution of this problem.
> > In searching for information on this I found only the brief thread
> > from last November which I have copied below.  Anyone who has
> > experienced this knows it brings a very unwelcome interruption to work
> > as one struggles to move or close the obstructing graphics windows
> > having no frames.  
> > 
> > I first experienced this problem with a Mac OSX system in which I was
> > using R under X11.  My R program called C functions and the problem
> > only occured when I was using graphics with fairly intensive
> > computations going on at the same time.
> > 
> > Recently, I've encountered this problem with a Linux system (Ubuntu)
> > using Gnome 2.8 with its default window manager Metacity.  On the
> > advice from the thread below, I changed window manager (to icewm) and
> > that eliminated the problem, except that the default Metacity seems
> > otherwise to work more efficiently and faster with Gnome.
> > 
> > I should note that I have been using Debian 3.0 (with gnome/icewm) for
> > almost three years with never any problem like this.
> > 
> > Thanks in advance for any information anyone may have on this issue.
> > 
> > Steve
> 
> I did a bit of poking around a month or so ago, and found that the
> example programs from an Xlib tutorial (I believe it was from
> http://tronche.com/gui/x/xlib-tutorial/xlib-tutorial.tar.gz) did the
> same thing. So this has much more to do with Metacity than it does
> with R. The mystery is of course that all the non-raw-Xlib
> applications seem to get by quite nicely, even xterms, so there is
> probably a trick but I was unable to find it.
> 
> One should probably relay this information to the Gnome/Metacity guys
> and get them either to acknowledge the bug or divulge the workaround.
>  
> (BTW, alt-F7 and alt-F8 allow you to move and resize the frame even
> without the title bar, and maximize followed by unmaximize does put
> the decoration right).
> 
> > From: Luke Tierney <luke_at_stat.uiowa.edu>
> > Date: Fri 12 Nov 2004 - 01:16:00 EST
> > 
> > On Thu, 11 Nov 2004, Martyn Plummer wrote:
> > 
> > > On Wed, 2004-11-10 at 09:19 +0100, Martyn Plummer wrote:
> > > > On Tue, 2004-11-09 at 19:47, Jonathan Baron wrote:
> > > > > On 11/09/04 20:37, Jari Oksanen wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > >On 9 Nov 2004, at 19:44, Jonathan Baron wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > >> The RPM for Fedora Core 2 seems to work just fine on Core 3.
> > > > > >>
> > > > > >> (The graphics window got smaller, but I'm sure there is a
> > > setting
> > > > > >> for that.)
> > > > > >>
> > > > > >That would be good news. I really don't know how the graphics
> > > window
> > > > > >became so big at some stage. (MacOS X is just cute here: tiny,
> > > sharp,
> > > > > >fast graphics window.)
> > > > >
> > > > > I have the opposite problem, a 1680x1050 display.
> > > > >
> > > > > >Has the options()printcmd reappeared, so that dev.print() works
> > > without
> > > > > >changing default options?
> > > > >
> > > > > I can't imagine how this would change. This is the same "old"
> > > > > RPM, not a new one. The option is there, and I don't think it
> > > > > ever disappeared. I can't test it. This is my laptop, which is
> > > > > not set up to print anything.
> > > >
> > > > My mistake. The default print command is determined at configure
> > > time.
> > > > But the RedHat RPMS are built in a sandbox that has only the
> > > minimal
> > > > configuration needed to build R. This doesn't include the lpr
> > > package so
> > > > the default print command is null. I will fix this in the next RPM
> > > > release, but right now I am upgrading to FC3.
> > >
> > > An RPM for Fedora Core 3 should be on a CRAN mirror near you by the
> > > weekend. This fixes the printcmd bug.
> > >
> > > The X11() window is the right size for me, but it doesn't have a
> > > title
> > > bar, which is a nuisance.
> > >
> > > Martyn
> > >
> > 
> > I've seen this with X11 a little on FC2 but much more with rgl (maybe
> > 50% of the time with rgl vs 5-10% for X11()). Ross Ihaka tried
> > replacing the default metacity window manager with sawfish and found
> > that the problem seemed to go away. Ross also found a bug report for
> > metacity,
> > 
> >    https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=126571
> > 
> > that might be related. It might also be something we are not doing
> > quite right in opening a window that happens to bite metacity more
> > than other wms. If anyone has the time and energy to pursue this
> > please do.
> > 
> > Best,
> > 
> > luke
> 
> 
> -- 
>    O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
>   c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
>  (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph: (+45) 35327918
> ~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)             FAX: (+45) 35327907

-- 
Steven K. Thompson
Department of Statistics
Pennsylvania State University
address for 2004-5 academic year:
Santa Fe, NM 87501
phone: 505 982 5466