[R-gui] Re: R-SIG-GUI digest, Vol 1 #18 - 5 msgs

[Mark Myatt]

All,

Regarding using Tk, Thomas Friedrichsmeier writes

>The problem I see with this, is that this will be fine for the approach
>"extend R to have a GUI", but is simply not useful for the approach "write a
>GUI around R" (i.e. with R as a true backend). In fact, I think it would be a
>good idea to develop these custom Tk widgets for R, you mention, but I'm
>afraid, if we really want something useful across many different projects,
>we'll have to use some more abstract standard.

A good point. I was thinking more of a split development effort in which
there was some form of GUI shell around R with (e.g.) menus customisable
though a simple text file that describes menu names and hierarchies and
specifies calls to R functions as well as turning on and off various
aspects of the GUI. Such a GUI could have things like window management,
an embedded code editor component, a tabular data-editor / viewer, and
an 'object inspector'. This would be the "GUI around R". Front ends to
functions (called from menus or from the command line) could be written
in R controlling a Tk drawn dialog. I think this approach has the
advantage of using those with skills and interest in writing and porting
binary code to write the "GUI around R". The task of those with less
interest or less skill in this area would be to write the R/Tk wrappers
to R functions. This approach plays to the skills of some people in this
group as well as to people inside and outside of this group who can
write R code. I see this more as a manpower issue than a technical issue
... I am sure there are better technical solutions to what I am
suggesting here but these rely, I think, on the participation of only a
small number of highly technically competent people.

In addition, we already have the Tk interface (mostly) up and running.
It seems a bit of a shame to put this maturing development aside and
start anew.

Philippe Grosjean, I think, wrote:

>For those who are still skeptical and consider that the current
>implementation of Tcl/Tk in the tcltk R package could be just perfect, I
>would like to say that I have some problems with it (for instance, the tk
>windows appears _behind_ de main window in RGui.exe under Windows; not a
>good behaviour for dialog boxes). For simple dialog boxes, it is perfectly
>usable, but for a complex GUI frontend with lot of context menus and
>toolbars and interactions with an object explorer, a message window, etc.,
>it is not optimal in the current state, in my own opinion.

I don't think anyone would claim that the tcltk R package (or R or Tk or
TCL for that matter) are just perfect. The package could, however, form
the basis of at least part of the development effort.

As an aside, I must say that a "GUI frontend with lot of context menus
and toolbars" sounds more complicated than "complex". Can't we have
"just enough" widgets rather than "lot[s]". I worry when I see words
like "complex" used in the context of user interfaces. "Simple" is more
in my line.

Best wishes,

Mark

--
Mark Myatt