[R-gui] tcltk troubleshooting on OS X

[Seth Frey]

Hello,

I have a strange problem with both R.app and RStudio.app.  Since it's
a problem with both, I figure it's a problem with R or with my system,
and that your expertises may offer some leads on how I can keep
isolating the problem.

I've made it this far: when I run either capabilities() or
library(tcltk), both GUI apps hang uninformatively and have to be
force quit.  On the command line (via OS X Terminal), R does fine:
"""
> library(tcltk)  ### shouldn't work, and doesn't, but doesn't crash/hang either
Warning message:
In fun(libname, pkgname) : couldn't connect to display ":0.0"
> tcltk()
Error: could not find function "tcltk"
> capabilities()
       jpeg         png        tiff       tcltk         X11        aqua
       TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE       FALSE        TRUE
   http/ftp     sockets      libxml        fifo      cledit       iconv
       TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE
        NLS     profmem       cairo         ICU long.double     libcurl
       TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE
"""

So far, I've tried the following solutions:
Update R
Update RStudio
Downgrade RStudio (to version 0.98.1091 from Nov 2014)
And also,
     after removing all of following:
          /Library/Frameworks
          /Library/Frameworks/R.framework
          ~/Library/R
          ~/Applications/RStudio.app
          ~/Applications/R.app
          ~/.rstudio-desktop .rstudio-desktop.bak
          ~/.R
          ~/.Rapp.history
          ~/.Rhistory
          ~/.Rprofile
          and port uninstall R
     I tried installing R clean from https://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/
          and also removing it and installing R clean from Darwin
Ports with the +tcltk variant

After all this, I'm still getting the mysterious hang in both R.app
and RStudio.  I'm now out of guesses. I'm prepared to keep at it, but
at this point I don't even know where to start to continue chasing the
problem.

Thank you for your help.  If this isn't the right list to reach out
to, please let me know who to ask instead.

best,
seth.

ps. This isn't a problem with sqldf, but with a more obscure package,
mwa, so the standard workaround for tcltk problems,
options(gsubfn.engine = "R"), won't do. I need to be able to run:
"""
install.packages("mwa")
library(mwa)
example(matchedwake)
"""
This code should work fine on your machines (so it isn't a problem
with the developer of mwa), but it hangs on mine at "library(mwa)"
while loading required package tcltk.

pps., specs:
"""
> sessionInfo()
R version 3.2.2 (2015-08-14)
Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin13.4.0 (64-bit)
Running under: OS X 10.10.4 (Yosemite)

locale:
[1] C

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] tools_3.2.2
"""

best,
seth.