Dear all,

I am having exactly the same problem as Andy on an Intel Mac (see below 
/ https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-sig-mac/2009-May/006208.html) with 
the degree symbol. I am using R version 2.11.1 (2010-05-31) on Xubuntu 
10.04 with Windows fonts copied from /WINDOWS/Fonts and included via 
'sudo dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig' and 'sudo fc-cache'.

Any help would be highly appreciated, Christian

> Howdy,
>
> Using the scheme in plotmath, I can no longer get the degree symbol
> for my on-screen plots, using X11 on OS X. I instead see an upper-case
> upsilon (I think).  This is reproducible using "demo(plotmath)".   A
> figure drawn with this faulty symbol produces correct postscript (i.e.
> with a degree symbol) when I use dev.copy to write it to an eps file.
>
> I'm using R version 2.8.1 Patched (2009-01-19 r47650) on an intel Mac,
> fully updated OS X 10.5.7.
>
> Help appreciated,
>
> Andy
>
> Addendum:  This question was posed on the R-Help list, and Prof Ripley
> was kind enough to give me his thoughts on the problem.  His suggested
> work-around of X11(type="Xlib") does work.  I am re-posting my
> original question here at his suggestion.  Prof Ripley writes:
>
> >/  And that's the problem, the fonts used by cairographics on Mac OS X.
> />/  I don't know about the 'no longer': this (and a few others including
> />/  infinity) have been faulty for some time.  I think it relates to how
> />/  'fontconfig' (for which a binary library ships with R for Mac OS X)
> />/  interacts with Mac fonts, but there are many more interesting things
> />/  to do that track down such quirks.
> />/
> />/  There are some hints about this on ?X11
> />/
> />/      X11 chooses fonts by matching to a pattern, and it is quite
> />/      possible that it will choose a font in the wrong encoding or which
> />/      does not contain glyphs for your language (particularly common in
> />/      'iso10646-1' fonts).
> />/
> />/  This does look very like an incorrect encoding for a symbol font.
> />/  OTOH, the last display in example(points) seems right, so something
> />/  subtle is going on.
> />/
> />/  One option is to use X11(type="Xlib").  Another is to use quartz(),
> />/  assuming you are not running R on a remote system.
> />/
> />/  This is an Mac-specific question and it is always worth asking such
> />/  on R-sig-mac.
> />/
> />/  I believe the behaviour is still the same in 2.9.0 patched, but it
> />/  is always worth checking the current release, especially on
> />/  platforms where components that are otherwise part of the OS ship
> />/  with R (as no one records in the R docs things fixed/broken by
> />/  updates to such components -- we probably don't even know half of
> />/  them).
> /
> -- 
> Andy Jacobson
> andy.jacobson at noaa.gov  <https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac>
>
> NOAA Earth System Research Lab
> Global Monitoring Division
> 325 Broadway
> Boulder, Colorado 80305
>
> 303/497-4916
>
>    

-- 
-----------------------------------------------
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Institute of Geography&  Institute of Plant Sciences
University of Bern

http://www.stomatocysts.unibe.ch/kamenik
mailto: christian.kamenik@giub.unibe.ch

Postal address:
Dr. Christian Kamenik
Institute of Geography
Erlachstrasse 9a, Trakt 3
3012 Bern, Switzerland

Tel. +41 (0)31 631 5091
Fax +41 (0)31 631 43 38


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