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

John Fox jfox at McMaster.ca
Fri Sep 20 16:22:01 CEST 2013


Dear Berend,

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Berend Hasselman [mailto:bhh at xs4all.nl]
> Sent: Friday, September 20, 2013 9:24 AM
> To: John Fox
> Cc: 'Prof Brian Ripley'; r-sig-mac at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R-SIG-Mac] Problems loading Rcmdr on a Mac 10.7.2 and a
> Mac 10.6.8
> 
> 
> 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 ....

Thanks. If I spend another week on this, maybe I'll get it right!

Best,
 John

> 
> 
> 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
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > R-SIG-Mac mailing list
> > R-SIG-Mac at r-project.org
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac



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