[R-SIG-Mac] Problems loading Rcmdr on a Mac 10.7.2 and a Mac 10.6.8

Fri Sep 20 15:24:20 CEST 2013

On 20-09-2013, at 15:08, John Fox <jfox at mcmaster.ca> wrote:

> Dear Brian,
> 
> I've modified the Mac installation instructions again to add back the check
> for a prior installation of X-Windows. The instructions are at
> <http://socserv.socsci.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Misc/Rcmdr/installation-notes.html>.
> 

A small typo in your instructions:

Check to see whehter the X11 …...

Berend

> Thanks for your help,
> John
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Prof Brian Ripley [mailto:ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk]
>> Sent: Friday, September 20, 2013 8:37 AM
>> To: John Fox
>> Cc: 'r-sig-mac'
>> Subject: Re: [R-SIG-Mac] Problems loading Rcmdr on a Mac 10.7.2 and a
>> Mac 10.6.8
>> 
>> On 20/09/2013 12:54, John Fox wrote:
>>> Dear Brian,
>>> 
>>> On Fri, 20 Sep 2013 07:49:05 +0100
>>>  Prof Brian Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
>>>> On 20/09/2013 01:52, John Fox wrote:
>>>>> Dear Sarah,
>>>>> 
>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>> From: Sarah Hardy [mailto:sarah.hardy at maine.edu]
>>>>>> Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 8:08 PM
>>>>>> To: John Fox
>>>>>> Cc: Simon Urbanek; David Winsemius; r-sig-mac
>>>>>> Subject: Re: [R-SIG-Mac] Problems loading Rcmdr on a Mac 10.7.2
>> and a
>>>>>> Mac 10.6.8
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Running the "Software Update" and reinstalling R and Rcmdr worked
>> for
>>>>>> the student with the 10.7.2. We did not reinstall XQuartz. Now I
>> will
>>>>> 
>>>>> I'm glad that this worked. Apparently, the student had an old
>> version of
>>>>> X-Windows that was updated by Software Update. As Simon explained,
>> in this
>>>>> situation installing XQuartz is irrelevant because the other
>> version of
>>>>> X-Windows is invoked by R.
>>>>> 
>>>>>> see if it works for the others. BTW - I have identified at least
>> one
>>>>>> student with a 10.6.8 who had no problems installing R and Rcmdr
>>>>>> without installing XQuartz (per my instructions) - am going to
>> check
>>>>>> with other students tomorrow.
>>>>> 
>>>>> If the student installed a sufficiently up-to-date X-Windows, that
>> should
>>>>> work, and apparently did. The X-Windows used needn't be XQuartz. My
>> new
>>>>> instructions suggest that everyone install XQuartz because that
>> will give
>>>>> them an up-to-date X-Windows if they don't already have X-windows
>> installed,
>>>>> and will do no harm if they do have another X-Windows.
>>>> 
>>>> I am not so sure about that.  It will do no harm running CRAN binary
>> R.  But it does mean that there are multiple versions of X11 things
>> about
>>>> and that will cause problems for other things (including possibly
>> installing packages from source).
>>> 
>>> Thanks for pointing out this potential problem.
>>> 
>>> Oh well -- I hoped to have a simple set of instructions, and having
>> everyone install XQuartz followed what I took to be Simon's suggestion
>> (below).
>>> 
>>> Almost all of the problems people have with the Rcmdr package are on
>> the Mac OS X platform, and since most of these people are not
>> sophisticated in their computer use, having simple instructions is
>> important.
>>> 
>>> How about the following?
>>> 
>>> (1) Run System Update.
>>> 
>>> (2) Check whether X-Windows is installed. (I can restore my previous
>> instructions about how to check.)
>>> 
>>> (3) If X-Windows isn't installed, install XQuartz.
>> 
>> I think so.  And I have no problem with installing XQuartz on 10.6 or
>> 10.7 if Apple X11 is not installed.
>> 
>> Our experience on Solaris (which itself comes with two X11 setups)
>> shows
>> how easily it is to get them mixed and how hard it can be to
>> disentangle.
>> 
>>> 
>>> etc.
>>> 
>>> Best,
>>>  John
>>> 
>>> . . .
>>> 
>>>>>> 	> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>> 	> From: Simon Urbanek [mailto:simon.urbanek at r-project.org]
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 	> Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 11:49 AM
>>>>>> 	> To: John Fox
>>>>>> 	> Cc: 'David Winsemius'; 'Sarah Hardy'; 'r-sig-mac'
>>>>>> 	> Subject: Re: [R-SIG-Mac] Problems loading Rcmdr on a Mac 10.7.2
>>>>>> and a
>>>>>> 	> Mac 10.6.8
>>>>>> 	>
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 	> Well, the I think it reads far more complicated that in needs to
>>>>>> be.
>>>>>> 	> You should have a quickstart section that just says:
>>>>>> 	>
>>>>>> 	> * Install R 3.0.1 or later
>>>>>> 	> * Install XQuartz from http://xquartz.macosforge.org
>>>>>> 	>
>>>>>> 	> Done. Current R only supports 10.6.8+ and so does XQuartz so the
>>>>>> above
>>>>>> 	> covers everything that is supported right now (I recall having
>>>>>> that
>>>>>> 	> discussion earlier...).
>>>>>> 	>
>>>>>> 	> Then you can have troubleshooting section which says
>>>>>> 	>
>>>>>> 	> a) make sure you installed R with Tcl/Tk (it is the default) -
>>>>>> if in
>>>>>> 	> doubt, re-install R from CRAN
>>>>>> 	> b) use Software Update
>>>>>> 	>
>>>>>> 	> Then you can have a technical section with the details you show
>>>>>> below,
>>>>>> 	> but 99% of users should not need to read it.
>>>>>> 	>
>>>>>> 	> Cheers,
>>>>>> 	> Simon
>>> 
>>> . . .
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
>> Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
>> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
>> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
>> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
> 
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