[R] cairoDevice on Windows: succesful installation but does not load

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Thu, 9 Jun 2011, Agustin Lobo wrote:

> Hi!
> I've tried to install playwith on Windows XP but,
>
>> install.packages("cairoDevice")
> trying URL 'http://cran.at.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/2.13/cairoDevice_2.15.zip'
> Content type 'application/zip' length 52371 bytes (51 Kb)
> opened URL
> downloaded 51 Kb
>
> package 'cairoDevice' successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
>
> The downloaded packages are in
>        d:\Documents and Settings\_llp_gr_interfase.UAB\Configuración
> local\Temp\RtmpOo5UAa\downloaded_packages
>> require(playwith)
> Loading required package: playwith
> Loading required package: cairoDevice
> Error in inDL(x, as.logical(local), as.logical(now), ...) :
>  unable to load shared object 'C:/Archivos de
> programa/R/R-2.13.0/library/cairoDevice/libs/i386/cairoDevice.dll':
>  LoadLibrary failure:  No se puede encontrar el módulo especificado.
>
> Failed with error:  ‘package 'cairoDevice' could not be loaded’
>
> I've also tried installing cairoDevice but get the same problem. The dll
> 'C:/Archivos de
> programa/R/R-2.13.0/library/cairoDevice/libs/i386/cairoDevice.dll'
> is there despite the system claiming it's not

No, it is not claiming that. It does not say which the module is it 
cannot find (although Windows often does in a popup), and it is almost 
certainly not cairoDevice.dll.

Welcome to the wondrous world of Microsoft error messages!

I strongly suspect though that you failed to install the external 
software required and listed at
http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/2.13/@ReadMe

-- 
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