[R-pkg-devel] [r-package-devel] Win.Metafile and package check - "Found the platform-specific device:"

Sun Nov 5 23:02:19 CET 2023

On Sat, 4 Nov 2023, Wayne.W.Jones using shell.com wrote:

> Hi Vladimir,
>
> Thanks for the suggestions. I've considered both but I can't see a way of doing what I'm trying to achieve without explicitly adding a call to win.metafile in my code.
>
> To explain a little more...
>
> GWSDAT is a Shiny App so we don't use the traditional R graphics device - so your suggestion #1 is not an option . Instead, the user is offered a range of different plot options in a shiny list box as illustrated here in this windows based example:
> https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/61183826/280452267-c4287f8d-73cc-42a3-881a-4643bdb31689.png
>
> The list of options presented to the users in the list box is modified according to the platform - see code here:  https://github.com/WayneGitShell/GWSDAT/blob/master/R/server.R#L117-L118
>
> So anyone using a non-windows platform will never be offered the choice of "wmf"  to begin with. For example, see the online LINUX  version, https://stats-glasgow.shinyapps.io/GWSDATV3-2/.  You will see that this option doesn't exist in the list of choices - see https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/61183826/280453275-6da9b235-0387-47fd-b3a8-b0a949f0ec3e.png
>
> Any suggestions on how I can modify this approach to make it automatically pass the CRAN checks?

I see. Ideally, the CRAN checks should adjust to your use case - but it is 
not obvious how.

As you discovered in a later e-mail, the check just looks for the presence 
of win.metafile() so calling it in some other way satisfies the code.

best

Vladimir Dergachev

>
> Thanks,
>
> Wayne
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vladimir Dergachev <volodya using mindspring.com>
> Sent: 03 November 2023 20:03
> To: Jones, Wayne R GSUK-PTX/D/S <Wayne.W.Jones using shell.com>
> Cc: r-package-devel using r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R-pkg-devel] [r-package-devel] Win.Metafile and package check - "Found the platform-specific device:"
>
> Think Secure. This email is from an external source.
>
> On Fri, 3 Nov 2023, Wayne.W.Jones using shell.com wrote:
>
>> Dear R-Package-Devel,
>>
>> As part of GWSDAT package (https://github.com/waynegitshell/GWSDAT) we support the option to output plots to a WMF (https://r-graphics.org/recipe-output-vector-wmf) format if, and only if,  the user is on Windows. However, when I run the package checks on here it complains about using a platform specific function with the following message:
>>
>>  Found the platform-specific device:
>>    'win.metafile'
>>  dev.new() is the preferred way to open a new device, in the unlikely
>> event one is needed.
>>
>> In my opinion this is a false positive - and a similar issue has
>> previously been reported here:
>> https://stac/
>> koverflow.com%2Fquestions%2F70585796%2Funable-to-understand-1-note-in-
>> devtoolscheck-caused-by-a-platform-specific-d&data=05%7C01%7CWayne.W.J
>> ones%40shell.com%7C991ba83bef5648af7e8408dbdca7deea%7Cdb1e96a8a3da442a
>> 930b235cac24cd5c%7C0%7C0%7C638346385789331058%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8
>> eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3
>> 000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=FLTuWH3yJq0sK%2FePWzv5ga%2FcXQGvHNmQOauw3x5RTXc%3D&
>> reserved=0
>>
>> Any ideas on how I modify the code and package submission to automatically pass the checks?
>
> Two suggestions:
>
>   * let users specify the graphics device they want
>
>   * reading manpage for dev.new() it accepts a bunch of options - there is probably a way to request the metafile device you want. But I could not find that in documentation.
>
> best
>
> Vladimir Dergachev
>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Wayne
>>
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ------------------
>> Wayne Jones
>> Principal Data Scientist
>> Decarbonisation Data Science
>>
>> Tel: +44 (0) 207 934 4330
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