[R] bug in dev.copy2pdf output?

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "sq" == selwyn quan <selwynq at stanford.edu>
>>>>>     on Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:59:14 -0700 writes:

    sq> On Fri, 29 Jul 2011, Rolf Turner wrote:

    >> On 29/07/11 09:51, selwyn quan wrote:
    >>> 
    >>> On Thu, 28 Jul 2011, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
    >>> 
    >>>> On 11-07-28 1:22 PM, selwyn quan wrote:
    >>>>> 
    >>>>> Hi,
    >>>>> 
    >>>>> Am using R 2.13.1 on Linux (Fedora). Is anybody else having
    >>>>> problems with dev.copy2pdf xyplot output with the pch=1
    >>>>> (open circle) symbol? The symbols come out as "q" in the
    >>>>> PDF.  dev.copy2eps produces the correct results as does
    >>>>> cairo_pdf. Other symbols produced with dev.copy2pdf seem ok.
    >>>>> 
    >>>> 
    >>>> There have been reports like this before that turned out to be problems 
    >>>> in the viewer, which made inappropriate font substitutions.  How did 
    >>>> you determine that the circles came out as q?
    >>>> 
    >>>> Duncan Murdoch
    >>>> 
    >>> 
    >>> You are right. Think it is a bug in Fedora's evince. Acrobat reader 
    >>> renders the PDF fine.
    >> 
    >> FWIW, evince on my Ubuntu system renders the points correctly as open 
    >> circles.
    >> 
    >> cheers,
    >> 
    >> Rolf Turner
    >> 

    sq> see this bug report for a more detailed explanation:

    sq> https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18002

but *also* see the  *workaround* for the bug that has been on
R's   ?pdf  help page  for  years  [!!!!]
--> search for "q" (including the quotes).

Why oh why oh why ... are people always thinkg of bugs in R
    when they notice something and
why oh why oh why do they then "google around" instead of just
once carefully read the help pages that we have been writing
with much diligence, and have constantly been keeping current 
... aarrgghh.... {mentally tearing at my few remaining hairs ..}

Martin Maechler