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

John Fox jfox at mcmaster.ca
Thu Nov 28 01:46:34 CET 2013


Hi Rob,

I had some time today and so I started to implement this solution in the
Rcmdr. I first tested whether setting

  system("defaults write org.R-project.R NSAppSleepDisabled -bool yes")

fixes the problem; I verified via 

  system("defaults read org.R-project.R NSAppSleepDisabled")

that the key was in fact set properly. 

I'm afraid that even with NSAppSleepDisabled set, the Rcmdr still freezes
periodically. Whatever is going on is probably more complicated than
power-saving.

Best,
 John

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert J Goedman [mailto:goedman at icloud.com]
> Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2013 11:50 AM
> To: John Fox
> Cc: r-sig-mac at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R-SIG-Mac] Problems with Rcmdr via XQuartz on OSX
> Mavericks
> 
> Hi John,
> 
> If it's not too much work, I would implement it in Rcmdr because I
> don't know if there are other consequences of App Nap, so until the
> dust settles using the defaults system might be ok.
> 
> Regards,
> Rob J. Goedman
> goedman at icloud.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Nov 24, 2013, at 8:30 AM, John Fox <jfox at mcmaster.ca> wrote:
> 
> > Hi Rob,
> >
> > You've just answered my next question! I was holding off to give you
> a
> > chance to address the issue directly in R.app.
> >
> > Is there any reason for me, at least for the time-being, not to do
> this from
> > the Rcmdr via system()? I just tried, and that seems to work. If
> necessary,
> > I could check for the existence and (if it exists) the current state
> of this
> > key, and restore that when the Commander() exits. Of course, if you
> plan to
> > address the issue directly soon, it doesn't make sense for me to do
> so.
> >
> > Thanks again for your help.
> >
> > John
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Robert J Goedman [mailto:goedman at icloud.com]
> >> Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2013 10:32 AM
> >> To: John Fox
> >> Cc: r-sig-mac at r-project.org
> >> Subject: Re: [R-SIG-Mac] Problems with Rcmdr via XQuartz on OSX
> >> Mavericks
> >>
> >> Hi John,
> >>
> >> If you want to play around with NSAppSleepDisabled yourself, you
> can,
> >> in a Terminal:
> >>
> >> defaults write org.R-project.R NSAppSleepDisabled -bool yes
> >>
> >> to check the setting:
> >>
> >> defaults read org.R-project.R NSAppSleepDisabled
> >>
> >> or to re-enable AppNap:
> >>
> >> defaults write org.R-project.R NSAppSleepDisabled -bool no
> >>
> >> or just delete the key:
> >>
> >> defaults delete org.R-project.R NSAppSleepDisabled
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> Rob J. Goedman
> >> goedman at icloud.com
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Nov 23, 2013, at 10:31 PM, Robert J Goedman <goedman at icloud.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> 	Hi John,
> >>
> >> 	I'm just starting, but it look likes 'defaults write ...' can be
> >> used to manage the setting. Not elegant, but maybe temporarily ok
> for
> >> tcltk users.
> >>
> >> 	Someone from TexShop (Richard Koch) reported that if R.app is
> >> compiled against the 10.9 APIs, the 'Prevent App Nap' check box will
> >> not appear. The ultimate solution is for R.app to know when App Nap
> >> should not kick in, there is a new API for that.
> >>
> >> 	So, some more homework...
> >>
> >> 	Regards,
> >> 	Rob J. Goedman
> >> 	goedman at icloud.com
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 	On Nov 23, 2013, at 9:06 PM, John Fox <jfox at mcmaster.ca> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 		Hi Rob,
> >>
> >> 		Thanks for the explanation -- that makes sense of the
> > current
> >> behaviour. I think that you know that I'm not very knowledgeable
> about
> >> OS X. A couple of follow-up questions:
> >>
> >> 		If you make this change to R.app, will the default be to
> >> disable App Nap or just to provide the check box?
> >>
> >> 		If App Nap isn't disable by R.app by default, would it be
> >> possible to disable it under program control, e.g., when the Rcmdr
> >> package is loaded?
> >>
> >> 		Best,
> >> 		John
> >>
> >> 		On Sat, 23 Nov 2013 18:59:12 -0800
> >> 		Robert J Goedman <goedman at icloud.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> 			Hi John,
> >>
> >> 			Looking at Activity Monitor on my system, R will
> > always
> >> take up say 2.5% CPU time while R.app will almost go away if it is
> not
> >> active. This might be because in a terminal the process might not be
> >> treated as a pure application but maybe more as a traditional Unix
> >> process. But that's just a guess from my side.
> >>
> >> 			What surprised me a bit is that we couldn't switch
> > off
> >> App Nap, as is possible with several other apps (go to the Info
> panel
> >> of an app and it should show a 'Prevent App Nap' box, e.g. Dropbox).
> >> R.app did not show that box, probably a consequence of an older
> >> build/project creation?
> >>
> >> 			Anyway, on my system I added that property in the
> >> info.plist and disabled the App Nap behavior. It seems to be working
> >> fine now. I'll do some more testing to see if I can get the check
> box
> >> on the Info screen show up and check with Simon if it's ok to commit
> >> the change. Of course, in that case R.app will also always consume
> 2.5%
> >> CPU. Under the energy tab of the Activity Monitor you can see which
> >> apps allow App Nap.
> >>
> >> 			Rob J. Goedman
> >> 			goedman at icloud.com
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 			On Nov 23, 2013, at 5:43 AM, John Fox
> > <jfox at mcmaster.ca>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 				Dear Rob et al.,
> >>
> >> 				I'm glad that there's progress in
> > understanding
> >> the source of the problem, but I wonder why the problem doesn't
> >> manifest itself -- at least in my experience -- when R runs in a
> >> terminal window.
> >>
> >> 				Best,
> >> 				John
> >>
> >> 				On Fri, 22 Nov 2013 14:42:00 -0800
> >> 				Robert J Goedman <goedman at icloud.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> 					Thansk Peter,
> >>
> >> 					Now I can reproduce it!
> >>
> >> 					Rob J. Goedman
> >> 					goedman at icloud.com
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 					On Nov 22, 2013, at 1:00 PM, peter
> > dalgaard
> >> <pdalgd at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 						On 22 Nov 2013, at 16:42 ,
> > Robert J
> >> Goedman <goedman at icloud.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 							Not sure how long it
> > takes to see
> >> the lagging (a few minutes someone reported), but I've not been able
> to
> >> reproduce this problem.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 						For me, library(tcltk);
> > demo(tkfaq),
> >> click to focus, then use Fn-Down (i.e. PgDown) to go to the bottom
> of
> >> the file, Fn-Up to the top, etc. Less than two iteration for me
> before
> >> the effect kicks in.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 							Which makes me
> > wonder if anyone
> >> has seen this behavior after rebuilding R.app on Mavericks (from the
> >> R.app sources).
> >>
> >> 							Regards,
> >> 							Rob J. Goedman
> >> 							goedman at icloud.com
> >>
> >>
> >> 							On Nov 22, 2013, at
> > 7:29 AM, Simon
> >> Urbanek <simon.urbanek at r-project.org> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 								On Nov 20,
> > 2013, at 11:41 AM,
> >> Jonathan Chapman <petsrme2 at icloud.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 									I
> > upgraded to XQuartz
> >> 2.7.5, but it still lags.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 								Please read
> > Peter's response
> >> - it has nothing to do with XQuartz versions
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 							[[alternative HTML
> > version
> >> deleted]]
> >>
> >>
> >> 	_______________________________________________
> >> 							R-SIG-Mac mailing
> > list
> >>
> > R-SIG-Mac at r-project.org
> >>
> >> 	https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 						--
> >> 						Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
> >> 						Center for Statistics,
> > Copenhagen
> >> Business School
> >> 						Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000
> > Frederiksberg,
> >> Denmark
> >> 						Phone: (+45)38153501
> >> 						Email: pd.mes at cbs.dk  Priv:
> >> PDalgd at gmail.com
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 					[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> >>
> >>
> >> 	_______________________________________________
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> >>
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-
> >> mac
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
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> >>
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> >
> >



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