[R] Fancy quotes on Windows

[James W. MacDonald]

Thanks Duncan, updating to R-patched was all I needed.

Best,

Jim



Duncan Murdoch wrote:
> On 11/6/2009 11:30 AM, James W. MacDonald wrote:
>>
>> Duncan Murdoch wrote:
>>> On 11/6/2009 10:40 AM, James W. MacDonald wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I don't use Windows as my primary OS anymore, so didn't notice this 
>>>> until recently. In R-2.10.0 under Windows useFancyQuotes is FALSE by 
>>>> default, but this doesn't seem to affect the rendering of (text) 
>>>> help pages.
>>>>
>>>> This is not a problem if I run via the Rgui or Rterm (via DOS 
>>>> prompt), as the help pages are rendered in a popup window that 
>>>> understands directional quotes. However, if I run under emacs/ESS, 
>>>> the help is rendered within emacs, which doesn't understand 
>>>> directional quotes, so any quoted text is surrounded by 
>>>> \221thetext\222, which is obviously difficult to read.
>>>>
>>>> Is there another setting that I am missing that affects the usage of 
>>>> directional quotes for the help pages?
>>>
>>> I don't see this.  Are you sure you haven't got a typo somewhere?
>>
>> Pretty sure. I get the opposite:
>>
>> Loading required package: utils
>>  > options("useFancyQuotes")
>> $useFancyQuotes
>> [1] FALSE
>>
>>  > ?mean
>>
>> This is at a DOS prompt. In the popup box I get
>>
>> If ‘trim’ is zero (the default), the arithmetic mean of the
>>       values in ‘x’ is computed, as a numeric or complex vector of
> 
> I think I saw this once, but have been unable to reproduce it since 
> then.  I may have had useFancyQuotes=TRUE on that one occasion.
> 
> Since I can no longer reproduce this, and looking at the code shows no 
> reason it shouldn't be deterministic, I'm going to have to give up on it.
> 
> All I can suggest is that you should re-install R, preferably from the 
> 2.10.0 patched version.  It has a few bug fixes since the release, and 
> whatever was causing the problem for you may have gone away.
> 
> Duncan Murdoch
> 
>>
>> Also, from ?sQuote:
>>
>> Where fancy quotes are used, you should be aware that they may not
>>       be rendered correctly as not all fonts include the requisite
>>       glyphs: for example some have directional single quotes but not
>>       directional double quotes.  This is particularly troublesome in
>>       Windows ‘Command Prompt’ windows, which by default are set up
>>       to run in the so-called OEM codepage, which in most locales uses a
>>       different encoding from Windows.  Further, if the codepage is
>>       changed (with ‘chcp.exe’, e.g. to 1252 in a Western European
>>       language), the default raster fonts do not support the directional
>>       quotes.
>>
>>       To work around this, the default for
>>       ‘options("useFancyQuotes")’ is ‘FALSE’ on Windows except
>>       for the ‘Rgui’ console.  There fancy quotes work with the
>>       default Courier New font and more elegantly with Lucida Console
>>       and standard the CJK fonts, but directional double quotes are
>>       missing in raster fonts such as Courier and FixedSys.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Jim
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> When I run options("useFancyQuotes") in a new session, I see
>>>
>>>  > options("useFancyQuotes")
>>> $useFancyQuotes
>>> [1] TRUE
>>>
>>> and when I ask for help, I see help pages that respect that choice, e.g.
>>>
>>>  > ?mean
>>>
>>> gives ‘trim = 0’ in the description of x.  If I set
>>>
>>>  > options(useFancyQuotes=FALSE)
>>>  > ?mean
>>>
>>> I see 'trim = 0'.
>>>
>>> Maybe if there's no typo, it's emacs or ESS that's messing up somehow.
>>>
>>> Duncan Murdoch
>>
> 

-- 
James W. MacDonald, M.S.
Biostatistician
Douglas Lab
University of Michigan
Department of Human Genetics
5912 Buhl
1241 E. Catherine St.
Ann Arbor MI 48109-5618
734-615-7826