[R] Sys.setlocale() and text()

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Wed, 12 Dec 2007, Ed Merkle wrote:

> Thanks very much for the response.  I think I left out an important
> detail, however.
>
> I want my lowercase sigma to be displayed in a specific font from the
> Rdevga file (my project involves fonts).  So far as I know, quote() does
> not allow me to select a font.  Thus, I am specifically interested in
> the text() command and reasons why my example code performs differently
> in R 2.3.0 vs 2.6.1.

I think the only thing which needs explaining is why it worked in 2.3.1: 
you can't usually switch 8-bit locales in an application on Windows and 
expect to get the right font.  Most likely it was fortuitous that it 
worked: it was only intended to work in a multibyte locale (see the entry 
in CHANGES for 2.3.0), and that principally to aid testing of non-Western 
locales by the developers.

But if you are really interested in differences then you will need to 
study the changes in the source code for yourself: the price you paid does 
not include that level of support.

One of the holdups has been that we tried still to support Windows 9X/ME. 
That will be dropped as from R 2.7.0 and so we can use Unicode to access 
the glyphs via text().  Your example works for me in R-devel, so please 
try that in a day or two (I think it needs a recent change).

Note though that switching locales within a session is fragile: it 
invalidates all existing 8-bit data, and so for example repainting the 
graphics window or the console can change the glyphs displayed.  (In 
R-devel, try changing back to US and resize the graphics window.)


>
> Thanks,
> Ed
>
>
> Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>> Try this:
>>
>> plot(1:10, main = quote(sigma ^ 2))
>>
>>
>> On Dec 11, 2007 10:09 PM, Ed Merkle <edgar.merkle at wichita.edu> wrote:
>>> Dear HelpeRs,
>>>
>>> I have a question about the Sys.setlocale() command and plotting.  I am
>>> running Windows XP, with R 2.6.1.  My default locale is English_United
>>> States.1252.
>>>
>>> I am trying to add a lowercase sigma to a plot using the following code:
>>>
>>> Sys.setlocale("LC_CTYPE","greek")
>>> plot(1:10,1:10)
>>> text(4,3,"\xF3")
>>>
>>>
>>> For R 2.6.1, this code gives me the glyph from my default (1252) instead
>>> of from the 1253 codes.  For an older version of R (2.3.0) on the same
>>> computer, this code gives me the lowercase sigma that I wanted.  I have
>>> been unable to pinpoint what has changed.  Thanks for the help, and I
>>> apologize if I am missing something obvious.
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Ed Merkle, PhD
>>> Assistant Professor
>>> Dept. of Psychology
>>> Wichita State University
>>> Wichita, KS 67260
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>
>>
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595