[R-SIG-Mac] Using XQuartz - any known issues?

[Simon Urbanek]

Just a quick note in the hopes that is may be helpful: X11 (fontconfig, really) creates a font cache the first time is it started which can take substantial time depending on hardware (HDD vs SSD...) during which XQuartz doesn't respond. So I wouldn't be surprised if that was actually happening, unrelated to any setttings. If you start XQuartz later after the cache has been built, it will work fine immediately. So if that is what it was, the issue should not re-occur if you were patient enough the first time.

Cheers,
Simon



> On 21/04/2020, at 8:41 PM, ANDERSON Niall <Niall.Anderson using ed.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> Eberhard, Thanks - I'm also  an RStudio user, but am trying to use Rcmdr as a gentle introduction to R for a course (building up to RStudio use later).
> 
> John, thanks also for responding (not at all an Rcmdr issue, I think - that's just what happened to show the problem). Tech details:
> 
> MacBook Pro 15 (bought 2019)
> Catalina 10.15.4
> 2.6 GHz 6-core Intel Core i7
> 16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4 memory
> Radeon Pro 555X 4GB & Intel UHD Graphics 360 1536MB graphics.
> 
> R 3.6.3, new download of Rcmdr etc (reinstalled everything from scratch before realising X11 was the reason Rcmdr wasn't working and downloading XQuartz). I'm almost certain I would have rebooted before trying to run this - I saw that warning somewhere (CRAN FAQ maybe?). I certainly have since, but perhaps that's why it is now appearing to function correctly? I should say that 2-3 students have reported the same problem over the last 3-4 days, so it isn't just me.
> 
> Thanks again for input. Best wishes to all on the list.
> 
> Niall
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> Dr Niall H. Anderson | Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics/ Programme Co-director, MPH (on campus)
> Room G113B, Doorway 1
> Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh
> Old Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9AG
> 
> Niall.Anderson using ed.ac.uk  | +44 (0)131 650 3212 | Skype = live:niall.h.anderson
> 
> Responses to emails are only expected during your working hours
> 
> www.ed.ac.uk/usher <http://www.ed.ac.uk/usher> | @EdinUniUsher <https://twitter.com/edinuniusher>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 21/04/2020, 04:55, "Fox, John" <jfox using mcmaster.ca> wrote:
> 
>    Dear Niall,
> 
>> On Apr 20, 2020, at 3:42 PM, ANDERSON Niall <Niall.Anderson using ed.ac.uk> wrote:
>> 
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> I’m relatively new to MacOS and have only recently started trying to use XQuartz to enable me to run Rcmdr. Are there any common issues/ tips for getting good performance out of it (or should it usually run well with default settings)?
>> 
>> On first installation, I found there was a very long lag in menus being populated (i.e. the menu shape was generated, but no usable options were added), to the extent that Rcmdr was then effectively useless (not Rcmdr’s fault, I don’t think). One of my students suggested reducing Output Colors option from the default “Millions” setting. That seems to deal with the problem, thankfully.
>> 
>> Is that typical of XQuartz, and is there anything else I should be doing to get the best performance from it?
> 
>    I haven't observed the problem you describe on my Mac, which is a three- or four-year-old MacBook Pro (that is, the Rcmdr dialogs display reasonably crisply for me), and I haven't done anything special to configure XQuartz. Here are the specs for my Mac:
> 
>     Model Name:	MacBook Pro
>      Model Identifier:	MacBookPro13,2
>      Processor Name:	Dual-Core Intel Core i7
>      Processor Speed:	3.3 GHz
>      Number of Processors:	1
>      Total Number of Cores:	2
>      L2 Cache (per Core):	256 KB
>      L3 Cache:	4 MB
>      Hyper-Threading Technology:	Enabled
>      Memory:	8 GB
> 
>    It might help to have some more information. I assume that you're using the most recent versions of R, the Rcmdr package, and other packages, and a recent version of macOS. What Mac do you have, and did you reboot it after installing XQuartz? If you updated R, did you reinstall XQuartz?
> 
>    Best,
>     John
> 
>      -----------------------------
>      John Fox, Professor Emeritus
>      McMaster University
>      Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
>      Web: http::/socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox
> 
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> Niall Anderson
>> 
>> 
>> ________________________________
>> 
>> Dr Niall H. Anderson | Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics/ Programme Co-director, MPH (on campus)
>> 
>> Room G113B, Doorway 1
>> Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh
>> Old Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9AG
>> 
>> Niall.Anderson using ed.ac.uk  | +44 (0)131 650 3212 | Skype = live:niall.h.anderson
>> 
>> Responses to emails are only expected during your working hours
>> <image001.png>
>> www.ed.ac.uk/usher | @EdinUniUsher
>> 
>> <image002.png>
>> 
>> 
>> The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. _______________________________________________
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