[R-SIG-Mac] Quartz + ESS solution

[Simon Urbanek]

I have put together a hack that allows to run old Quartz device from  
within a command line R (such R run in ESS). Basically it hooks a  
Carbon even loop into R's event loop and thus allows Apple UI events  
to be processed. It also makes R a front application such that it  
responds to mouse/keyboard and appears in the dock. Note that Emacs  
runs R as a separate application, so you will have both Emacs and R  
(with a blank icon) in the dock.

How to install:

install.packages("CarbonEL",,"http://rforge.net/")

to load:
library(CarbonEL)

Make sure CarbonEL package gets loaded by ESS such that Quartz is  
always responsive. This also works for R run from a shell such that  
Terminal or xterm.

Cheers,
Simon

PS: The above doesn't fix other problems with the old Quartz device  
(R.app uses a different, newer Quartz device! E.g. quartz.save(..)  
works only in R.app). It is just a hack for people that don't mind  
using the old Quartz device ;).