[R-SIG-Mac] Embedded R, event loops, GUI events, and OS X

[Miëtek Bak]

Hello,

I’m helping with the development of an R-to-Haskell interoperability solution, called H.  The project allows Haskell functions to seamlessly call R functions and vice versa, making use of an embedded R interpreter.  H is developed in-house by Tweag I/O, and is soon to be open-sourced.

The project is stable on Linux and Windows, and I’m focussing on an OS X port.  Basic functionality is ready, but I’m having trouble with the GUI parts.  Specifically, any graph window, e.g. the one expected for `plot(cars)`, appears blank and unresponsive when triggered from H.

I think the issue lies between the H loop, the R event loop, and the Cocoa event loop.  So far, I’ve pored over “Writing R Extensions” (chapter 8, “Linking GUIs and other front-ends to R”), the R 3.1.0 sources, (`./src/library/grDevices/src/qdCocoa.m`), and the R.app 1.6.4 sources (`./RController.m`, `./REngine/RCallbacks.m`, `./REngine/RInit.m`, and `./REngine/REngine.m`).  I’ve also found interesting notes in the R.app `./ReadMe.txt`, but unfortunately, they no longer seem to be in sync with the code.

As I’ve seemingly hit a wall, I’m looking for advice.  Are any of the developers of the OS X port of R subscribed to this list?

Thanks, and kind regards,

-- 
Miëtek Bak