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

[Peter Meilstrup]

On Nov 12, 2009, at 6:43 PM, David Winsemius wrote:

>
> 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 ?

install.packages is chosen as a convenient example of something that  
wants to show a Tk window. I'm not experiencing any problems with  
install.packages other than the problem with Tk. In this case, it  
wants to show a Tk window so that I can choose a CRAN mirror, but fails.

>> 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?

This particular dialog box, when it did appear, was taller than my  
screen, so that I could not see the USA mirrors at the bottom of the  
list, or select the "OK" button, or resize or move it to a better  
situation. The dialog box that appeared under R.app could actually be  
used.

Peter