[R] pdf() and pch problems

[T.Zumbrunn at unibas.ch]

Quoting Brian D Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk>:
> On Thu, 22 Jan 2009, Robin Hankin wrote:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> R-2.8.1,   Suse 11.1
>>
>> I'm having problems with pdf(). In the following
>> transcript, file 'f.pdf' does not use the expected symbols for the plot.
>> It uses a 'q' letter instead of the open circle I get when
>> viewing the graphics window.
>>
>> I also get the same under  r47678.
>>
>> Does anyone else get this?
>
> Yes, if you use a broken PDF viewer (you have not told us yours). From ?pdf
>
> useDingbats: logical.  Should small circles be rendered _via_ the
>           Dingbats font?  Defaults to true, which produces smaller and
>           better output - this is provided for those who insist on
>           using broken PDF viewers.
>
> I get the problem in evince but not acroread in F10.

The problem is caused by missing fontconfig rules in openSUSE 11.1  
(that the PDF library poppler depends on). I reported the problem a  
while ago here http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18002  
(instructions on how to fix the issue are included) and filed a bug at  
the openSUSE bug database  
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=434676. The bug was  
closed, but I reopened it.

>>
>>
>>
>> le112:~/scratch/R-2.8.1% R --vanilla --quiet
>>> pdf(file='~/f.pdf')
>>> plot(1:10 , pch=1)
>>> dev.off()
>> null device
>>        1
>>> sessionInfo()
>> R version 2.8.1 (2008-12-22)
>> i686-pc-linux-gnu
>>
>> locale:
>> LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8;LC_COLLATE=en_US.UTF-8;LC_MONETARY=C;LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8;LC_PAPER=en_US.UTF-8;LC_NAME=C;LC_ADDRESS=C;LC_TELEPHONE=C;LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8;LC_IDENTIFICATION=C
>>
>> attached base packages:
>> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods     
>> base    > q()
>> le112:~/scratch/R-2.8.1%
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Robin K. S. Hankin
>> Uncertainty Analyst
>> University of Cambridge
>> 19 Silver Street
>> Cambridge CB3 9EP
>> 01223-764877
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> 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
>
> ______________________________________________
> 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.