[R] Mac woes

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Thu, 8 Jan 2009, Stuart Vyse wrote:

> I am new to R but have spent a little time messing around with it. I
> am running version 2.8.1 under Leopard OS 10.5 on a power PC and also
> on my laptop, which is Intel. Unless, I am wrong, this version is just
> a bit buggy.
>
> 1. In the R Commander, there is no direct entry of data. The Edit menu
> does not include a "New data set" choice, as advertised in the Windows
> version.
>
> 2. Entering data from a text file is not always trouble free.
> Variables do not always seem to be understood as variables.
> Scatterplot and Matrix scatterplot options under Graph are grayed out
> when they shouldn't be.
>
> 3. Finally, attempting to edit your imported data file (by clicking
> the "Edit data set") does open an editor window, but clicking around
> in it to delete variables, etc, invariably leads to the program
> hanging. The spinning beach ball.
>
> Am I missing something? Any suggestions?

Are you talking about Rcmdr only?  That is contributed software, so it 
is unfair to blame 'R" for it (and not to give credit to John Fox for it).

There is a specific list for R on Macs, R-sig-Mac -- see the posting 
guide.  Mac issues do tend to get overlooked on this very busy general 
list, and you weere asked in the posting guide to 'discuss possible bugs' 
there.

One short answer is that Rcmdr is a Tcl/Tk program, and Tcl/Tk does not 
work particularly well on your minority platform.  But detailed, 
reproducible reports to the author (John Fox for Rcmdr) or the appropriate 
list (R-sig-mac) will help to improve the workarounds.  And I know John 
bought a Mac to help support Mac users and is unfailingly helpful to users 
of his software.

> Stuart Vyse
> Professor
> Box 5621                                      web: http://www.stuartvyse.com
> Department of Psychology        Phone: 860-439-2339
> Connecticut College                   FAX 860-439-5300
> New London, CT 06320             email:  stuart.vyse at conncoll.edu


-- 
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