[R-gui] [Rd] R GUI considerations

[Thomas Friedrichsmeier]

While I totally agree with the general directions of you mail, I don't agree 
with your points 4 and 5.

> 4) What is the language that is working an all platforms R runs, is
> perfectly compatible with R, and is always available once R is
> installed? Well, R itself (i.e., the S language), of course! So, to make
> sure your GUI code is most usable by the R community, write as much GUI
> code as you can in S language... and if you think you can write
> everything in you XXX language, think again, and you will realize that a
> large part of that code can actually be written directly in R as well.
>
> 5) There are new and better graphical widgets and languages appearing
> regularly in the computer world. The best ones for making a GUI today
> may be obsolete rapidly in the future. On the contrary, we all hope a
> longer life for R. Thus, write your GUI code in R as much as possible in
> a way it is independent from a particular GUI toolkit and interfacing
> language. I say, as much as possible, because this is a very diffcult
> task, given the specificities of each toolkit and language.

This is a perfectly valid approach. However, I don't think it's the only one 
to "tolerate" on R-SIG-GUI. Personally - and no, I don't really want to go 
into a lengthy discussion of the pros and cons at this point - I follow a 
radically different philosphy in this respect: Since R is _not_ designed to 
be a GUI language, do as little GUI code in R as possible. Write a GUI that 
can use R, and make it as easy as possible for R-experts to add functionality 
to your GUI, but don't try to write your GUI in R. For all other things 
(creating nice output and such), R is the language of choice, of course.
And no, I'm not claiming, mine is the only true way to happiness. However:

> I think if you disagree with these "rules", you'r wasting your time. You
> are then better to log off from R-SIG-GUI, even uninstall R if you are
> so angry,... and enjoy life instead of wasting time fighting against the
> $%*£&#! behaviour of R in your GUI.

I just wanted to point out that maybe some of your rules are overly strict (at 
least for me).

Regards

Thomas Friedrichsmeier