[R-SIG-Mac] homebrew install High Sierra - tcl-tk support

[David Winsemius]

> On Oct 18, 2017, at 12:09 AM, Rainer Krug <Rainer at krugs.de> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On 17 Oct 2017, at 17:18, David Winsemius <dwinsemius at comcast.net> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> On Oct 17, 2017, at 7:56 AM, David Winsemius <dwinsemius at comcast.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Oct 17, 2017, at 1:43 AM, Rainer Krug <Rainer at krugs.de> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Hi
>>>> 
>>>> One question about home-brew installation:
>>>> 
>>>> After upgrading to High Sierra (and update to R 3.4.2), I don’t get tcl-tk support in R.
>>>> 
>>>> I get the following error:
>>>> 
>>>> 	> library(tcltk)
>>>> 	Error: package or namespace load failed for ‘tcltk’:
>>>> 	 .onLoad failed in loadNamespace() for 'tcltk', details:
>>>> 	  call: fun(libname, pkgname)
>>>> 	  error: Tcl/Tk support is not available on this system
>>>> 	In addition: Warning message:
>>>> 	S3 methods ‘as.character.tclObj’, ‘as.character.tclVar’, ‘as.double.tclObj’, ‘as.integer.tclObj’, ‘as.logical.tclObj’, ‘as.raw.tclObj’, ‘print.tclObj’, ‘[[.tclArray’, ‘[[<-.tclArray’, ‘$.tclArray’, ‘$<-.tclArray’, ‘names.tclArray’, ‘names<-.tclArray’, ‘length.tclArray’, ‘length<-.tclArray’, ‘tclObj.tclVar’, ‘tclObj<-.tclVar’, ‘tclvalue.default’, ‘tclvalue.tclObj’, ‘tclvalue.tclVar’, ‘tclvalue<-.default’, ‘tclvalue<-.tclVar’, ‘close.tkProgressBar’ were declared in NAMESPACE but not found
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Is this a problem on my side, or is there a problem with R & homebrew & High Sierra & tcl-tk?
>>> 
>>> Caveat. I know almost nothing about homebrew other than its function and the fact that users of it often have problems with installing R properly. The CRAN page for the Mac R 3.4.2 fork says:
>>> 
>>> -------begin-------
>>> Contains R 3.4.2 framework, R.app GUI 1.70 in 64-bit for Intel Macs, Tcl/Tk 8.6.6 X11 libraries and Texinfo 5.2. The latter two components are optional and can be ommitted when choosing "custom install", they are only needed if you want to use the tcltk R package or build package documentation from sources.
>> 
>> I intended that the next sentence be here (and wan't intending two copies of those sentences):
>> 
>> Note: the use of X11 (including tcltk) requires XQuartz to be installed since it is no longer part of OS X. Always re-install XQuartz when upgrading your OS X to a new major version.
>> 
>>> -----end----
>>> 
>>> So it makes me wonder if you need to add the correct versions of the underlying system packages in a manner that your homebrew installation can find them. (the 3.3 fork uses a differnt version of Tcl/Tk.) 
> 
> Thanks David - but no luck. Still the same problems - even after installing quartz again.


I was not sure whether the  list of items included: "Intel Macs, Tcl/Tk 8.6.6 X11 libraries and Texinfo 5.2" was missing a comma between 8.6.6 and X11 libraries or conversely  that TCL/Tk 8.6.6 was supposed to indicate a particular version of Quartz. Looking at the various webpages for those two packages, I don't see any change in XQuartz' version numbers whereas there has been quite a bit of updating of TCL/Tk.

-- 
David.