[R] R 4.0.2 not running on macOS 10.15.6

[Marc Schwartz]

Hi Mike,

The installation interface has a minimal process, where what may be optional components are left to you to install on your own. Thus, the Installation and Admin manual references these, as does the macOS FAQ, but the wording may leave open to interpretation what may or may not be required, based upon your specific use case. In some use cases, XQuartz would not be required and you need to go to a third party site to obtain it, much like you would need to for MacTeX or similar.

With respect to the lists, each R list is moderated by a volunteer, thus will require a subscription in order to get your posts sent out without manual intervention by the list admins/moderators. For example, I am one of the two Admins for R-Devel, along with Martin Mächler, thus spend some amount of time having to manually approve posts where the poster is not, and does not become a subscriber.

Once you subscribe, and your first post is approved, subsequent posts can get through without manual intervention, which is appreciated.

If you do not want to keep getting posts from the lists, once your issue is resolved, you can return to the list interface, sign into your account, and disable getting the posts. Of course, if you need to interact again in the future, you would need to remember to re-enable the posts being sent, as responses to posts do not always include you as a cc:.

Digests are available, but can be more complicated to interact with, in some cases, depending upon your e-mail client, if you should want to reply to a specific post. You can set this in your account settings for the relevant list if you wish.

One option for you to consider, is that I have server side filters/rules set up for the R lists (and others) that I subscribe to. These then move each e-mail from my main inbox to the relevant online (IMAP) sub-folder for organization. Thus, it keeps my inbox clean and let's me review relevant posts in a more efficient and focused manner.

Regards,

Marc


> On Sep 4, 2020, at 11:43 AM, Mike Feher <mfeher1971 using gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Good morning Marc,
> 
> Thank you kindly for your quick response.  I had read prior to installation that I might have needed or wanted to install some different packages to support R, but did not catch that XQuartz was a requirement.  (I also never got prompted for various options during the installation of R-4.0.2.pkg.)
> 
> Regarding email lists, perhaps you can assist with this question: While I don't mind becoming a registered member, I prefer not to get email traffic from groups as I have in the past (I actually really hate email for a lot of reasons these days), so I'm wondering, is there a way to get a digest (I thought I saw that) of just a weekly summary of information or questions posted, rather than getting CC:d on every back-and-forth within the user community?  Also, do I have to become an approved user to the R mailing list community or anything like that?  Or are all posts moderated?
> 
> Now that the weekend is upon me, I'll have some time to come up to speed on all this.  Thanks for your patience.
> 
> Thanks again!
> Mike
> 
> On Fri, Sep 4, 2020 at 8:05 AM Marc Schwartz <marc_schwartz using me.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Sep 3, 2020, at 9:26 PM, Michael Feher <mfeher1971 using gmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> > Greetings,
> > 
> > I am a brand-new user to R and want to install and run this on my iMac running macOS 10.15.6.  I successfully downloaded the correct package, installed it with no problems (I was not given any options for Tcl/Tk or Texinfo), and started it up as any other normal app.  Some introductory commands like license() and help() worked just fine.  But when I went to execute demo(), it just beach-balled.  I’ve had to force-quit R a number of times.
> > 
> > Yes, I read the Mac installation instructions.
> > 
> > Thanks in advance.
> > 
> > Mike
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Sounds like you need to install XQuartz:
> 
>   https://www.xquartz.org
> 
> which is referenced in the macOS installation instructions and the macOS specific FAQ.
> 
> Also, be aware that there is a macOS specific e-mail list here:
> 
>   https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac
> 
> which is where macOS specific R issues should be posted.
> 
> You will need to re-install XQuartz any time you upgrade/install a new version of R.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Marc Schwartz
>