[R] Odd graphic device behavior

[peter dalgaard]

On Mar 28, 2013, at 22:27 , Thomas Adams wrote:

> All,
> 
> Well to my relief and embarrassment, I discovered my problem. About 5 weeks
> ago, I shutdown my computer and moved it. When I reconnected everything I
> apparently plugged my HDMI monitor into the 'wrong' output port without
> realizing it. So, on a whim, just now, I made the switch to the other port
> and presto changeo -- problem solved!! The odd thing was, besides my R
> graphics device window problems, everything else was fine...
> 
> Out of curiosity, can anyone explain this?

My best guess is that the pixel resolution was taken from the disconnected primary display and set to some safe standard value like 640x480, miscalculating the dimensions of your display, so that it ended up with huge "virtual inches". 

The reason everything else didn't notice could be that they work in pixel units rather than physical units.

(There seems to be no really perfect solution to the problem of setting default dimensions: Pixel count gives stamp-sized graphs on hi-res displays, physical dimensions are meaningless on projectors and not really what you want on a tiny screen, and percent of display area is "undue imperialism" if you have a large monitor, intending to overlook many windows at once.) 

> 
> Thanks for all the help...
> 
> Tom
> 
> On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 4:06 PM, Thomas Adams <tea3rd at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Luca,
>> 
>> Thank you for the suggestion; I do have an Nvidia graphics card and I am
>> using the Nvida driver; still searching for a solution, quite odd...
>> 
>> Tom
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 12:28 PM, Luca Nanetti <luca.nanetti at gmail.com>wrote:
>> 
>>> Thomas,
>>> any chance that you could have problems with your graphic driver? For
>>> instance, if you have an Nvidia graphic card, I would recommend switching
>>> from the 'nouveau' driver to the official Nvidia one.
>>> 
>>> Kind regards,
>>> luca
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
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> 
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-- 
Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School
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