[R-SIG-Mac] Problems with Rcmdr via XQuartz on OSX Mavericks

[John Fox]

Dear all,

I was able to reproduce the problem on my Macbook and believe I have a solution, which is to run R and the Rcmdr in a terminal window. When I did this, the Rcmdr behaved normally. I'll investigate further and report my findings back to the list. 

I'm copying this message to Simon Urbanek who maintains R.app in case he has insight into the problem. 

I'm also interested whether running R from a terminal window solves the problem for others who experienced it.

Best,
 John

On Wed, 20 Nov 2013 12:19:04 -0500
 "John Fox" <jfox at mcmaster.ca> wrote:
> Dear Jonathan et al,
> 
> First, thank you to all who responded. As I said, I haven't noticed this problem myself, but I'll try again on my Mac later today when I have some time and see whether I can reproduce it. I suspect that this is a tcltk-related issue, not specific to the Rcmdr, but I don't know that for sure.
> 
> In the meantime, here are two things to try:
> 
> (1) Reijo Sund suggested trying to run R and the Rcmdr from the command line (i.e., in a terminal window), to see whether the problem manifests itself there. The Rcmdr doesn't need R.app. 
> 
> (2) It's possible that the slowdown is caused by the way that the Rcmdr handles R Markdown documents. The overhead gets greater as the session proceeds. To test this possibility, you could suppress the R Markdown tab (via the Rcmdr Tools -> Options menu, Output tab -- uncheck the box for R Markdown) and see whether the problem disappears.
> 
> Please let me know what happens.
> 
> Best,
>  John
> 
> 
> On Wed, 20 Nov 2013 10:41:28 -0600
>  Jonathan Chapman <petsrme2 at icloud.com> wrote:
> > I upgraded to XQuartz 2.7.5, but it still lags.
> > 
> > Jonathan M. Chapman, DVM
> > 312-813-1166
> > petsrme2 at icloud.com
> > 
> > > On Nov 20, 2013, at 10:05 AM, Manuel Spínola <mspinola10 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > 
> > > I also have the same experience (like Jonathan) with Rcmdr in Mac with Mavericks.  After few minutes Rcmdr starts to have time lags.  I updated to XQuartz 2.7.5 but the behavior is the same.
> > > 
> > > Best,
> > > 
> > > Manuel
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 2013/11/20 Reijo Sund <reijo.sund at helsinki.fi>
> > >> So far I have not had problems with XQuartz, but similar slow-down occasionally happens while using tcltk-applications with the Aqua version of Tcl/Tk (ActiveTcl 8.6.x binary distribution). Unfortunately I have not been able to create a reproducible example.
> > >> 
> > >> Anyhow, if XQuartz update won’t help, maybe it is worth checking if there is any difference while using R.app or command-line R.
> > >> 
> > >> - - -
> > >> 
> > >> Prof Brian Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
> > >> > Just checking: which version of XQuartz?
> > >> >
> > >> > Although I have not experienced any problems, people recommended updating to 2.7.5 and I got prompted to do that yesterday (it was released last week).
> > >> >
> > >> > On 20/11/2013 11:52, John Fox wrote:
> > >> >> Dear Jonathan,
> > >> >>
> > >> >> I'm afraid that I don't know why you're experiencing this problem. I upgraded my own Mac to Mavericks and the Rcmdr still appears to work fine. Also, no one else has reported this problem to me, which of course doesn't mean that no one else has experienced it.
> > >> >>
> > >> >> I don't doubt that something is wrong on your system but I don't know what it might be. You've already reinstalled all of the relevant software, which is what I would have suggested.
> > >> >>
> > >> >> I'm copying this response to the R Mac OS X email list in case someone who reads the list has a suggestion or, perhaps, has also experienced the problem.
> > >> >>
> > >> >> I'm sorry that I can't be of more help at this time.
> > >> >>
> > >> >> John
> > >> >>
> > >> >> On Wed, 20 Nov 2013 00:19:54 -0600
> > >> >>  Jonathan Chapman <petsrme2 at icloud.com> wrote:
> > >> >>> Dr. Fox,
> > >> >>>
> > >> >>> I am an MPH student at the University of Minnesota.  I was referred to you by Dr. Ann Brearley because I am having issues running Rcmdr in XQuartz since upgrading to OSX Mavericks.  Rcmdr runs slowly, more-so as a lag, after an initial 1-2 minutes of use.  Prior to that 1-2 minutes of use and the subsequent lag in performance, Rcmdr runs perfectly fine via XQuartz.  Once closing out XQuartz and restarting it, Rcmdr runs fine until after 1-2 minutes of use when the lag sets in again.
> > >> >>> I’ve tried to remedy the situation prior to contacting you.  First, I reinstalled XQuartz.  When that failed to solve the problem, I reinstalled XQuartz along with R and Rcmdr.  That attempt also failed.  I do not know what else to do or who/where else to turn.
> > >> >>> Do you have any incite?  Have you heard of anyone else encountering this problem?
> > >> >>>
> > >> >>> Jonathan M. Chapman, DVM
> > >> >>> 312-813-1166
> > >> >>> petsrme2 at icloud.com
> > >> >>>
> > >> 
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> R-SIG-Mac mailing list
> > >> R-SIG-Mac at r-project.org
> > >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > -- 
> > > Manuel Spínola, Ph.D. 
> > > Instituto Internacional en Conservación y Manejo de Vida Silvestre 
> > > Universidad Nacional 
> > > Apartado 1350-3000 
> > > Heredia 
> > > COSTA RICA 
> > > mspinola at una.ac.cr 
> > > mspinola10 at gmail.com 
> > > Teléfono: (506) 2277-3598 
> > > Fax: (506) 2237-7036 
> > > Personal website: Lobito de río 
> > > Institutional website: ICOMVIS

------------------------------------------------
John Fox
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/