[R-SIG-Mac] Tcl/Tk errors from command line R

[David Winsemius]

On Nov 12, 2009, at 8:23 PM, Peter Meilstrup wrote:

> I often get errors like the following when trying to use a package  
> that uses Tcl/Tk, under command-line R (2.10.0) or R via ESS, etc. I  
> haven't been able to google anything useful on the error text. Does  
> anyone know what the fix might be?
>
> > install.packages(ggplot2)

Have you tried that with dependencies=TRUE ?

> Loading Tcl/Tk interface ... done
> --- Please select a CRAN mirror for use in this session ---
> Error in structure(.External("dotTclObjv", objv, PACKAGE = "tcltk"),  
> class = "tclObj") :
>  [tcl] bad pad value "2m": must be positive screen distance.
>
> On the occasions where it did work, the X11 Tk windows that came up  
> were not as nice as the interface that shows in R.app.

That is a bit vague, don't you agree?

> I found out about options(device="quartz") to get the nice quartz  
> plot windows in command line R; is there an equivalent for the UI  
> windows, or are they limited to R.app?

I don't think I can help you debug your Tk problem, but as far as  
graphics devices go, you get quite a bit of information with:

 > capabilities()
     jpeg      png     tiff    tcltk      X11     aqua http/ftp   
sockets   libxml     fifo
     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE      
TRUE     TRUE     TRUE
   cledit    iconv      NLS  profmem    cairo
     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE

# And invoking the X11 device seems to present no problems for me. It  
seems just as "nice" as a blank quartz window:
 > X11()
-- 

David Winsemius, MD
Heritage Laboratories
West Hartford, CT

 > sessionInfo()
R version 2.10.0 Patched (2009-10-29 r50258)
x86_64-apple-darwin9.8.0

locale:
[1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8

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

other attached packages:
[1] Design_2.3-0    Hmisc_3.7-0     survival_2.35-7 lattice_0.17-26

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] cluster_1.12.1 grid_2.10.0    tools_2.10.0