[R-SIG-Mac] Just checking - X11 Tcl/Tk is still the default (not Aqua), right?

[Simon Urbanek]

Hi James,

On Jun 23, 2005, at 1:29 AM, James Wettenhall wrote:

> So I just wanted to check that the R 2.1.1 for MacOS X binary from  
> CRAN is still configured by default to use X11 Tcl/Tk, right?

There is currently only R 2.1.0a binary on CRAN which in fact comes  
with X11 Tcl/Tk support. The Tcl/Tk libraries are not installed by  
default, you have to click on 'custom setup' and enable them during  
the installation.

I do have a release candidate binary for R 2.1.1 with the latest  
tcltk 8.4.10 for X11 and the most recent GUI. I can give you the link  
if you want. (It's not yet on CRAN, because we changed the way we  
build the binaries (to make it even more compatible) and persons key  
to the testing and/or release are traveling right now).

> So you would install Tcl/Tk from source in /usr/local/

You don't need that - they come already in the R CRAN binary.

> after having installed the developer tools and X11SDK from the  
> Xcode CD, then library(tcltk) should work. Right?

Strictly speaking you don't need the Xcode/dev tools unless you want  
to compile packages from sources. As long as all packages you need  
are on CRAN as mac binaries, you don't need Xcode. If you want to  
compile packages, then in addition to Xcode you will need a Fortran  
compiler (in fact the 2.1. RC come with one).

> Whereas if you want to use Aqua Tcl/Tk, you would have to build R  
> from source

In fact Aqua Tcl/Tk is shipped with Tiger, so on 10.4 you have it  
already. For older systems there are binaries around. The catch is  
that it doesn't work with the tcltk R package and the GUI (however,  
Jan may have instructions to get it running under some circumstances  
- you may want to look in the SIG-Mac archives).

> Right?  But then on the upside, at least getting binaries for Tcl/ 
> Tk extensions would be easier than for X11 :-).

I suspect that it's the other way round - extensions are more likely  
to work with X11 as this is more widely used, but this is just a  
speculation based on my experience with other toolkits.

> Hopefully this won't take up too much of anyone's time.  I think it  
> should just be a Yes/No answer to this question: X11 Tcl/Tk is  
> still the default (not Aqua), right?

Yes for the reasons above.

Cheers,
Simon