[R-SIG-Mac] Tcl/Tk issues in arm64 build of R 4.1.0

[John Fox]

Dear Simon, Philippe, and list members,

I've encountered some Tcl/Tk-related issues with the Apple silicon arm64 
build of R 4.1.0 for macOS. These issues affect the Rcmdr package, 
although they don't prevent it from working:

(1) Some fonts that are available for the Intel build appear to be 
missing from the arm64 build. Compare the screen shots of the Rcmdr main 
window at 
<https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/jfox/.Pickup/x86_64-apple-darwin17.0.png> 
(Intel build) and 
<https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/jfox/.Pickup/aarch64-apple-darwin20.png> 
(arm64 build). This problem is purely aesthetic.

(2) The Tcl/Tk Tktable package is apparently absent from the arm64 build 
but still present in the Intel build. The Rcmdr detects its absence and 
suppresses some features (i.e., those requiring the Rcmdr data editor). 
I understand that the Tktable package is problematic and it may have 
been removed intentionally.

The Tcl/Tk Tablelist package would be a reasonable substitute, and were 
it available, I could use it to restore the missing features in the 
Rcmdr. I'm aware that Philippe Grosjean planned to incorporate Tablelist 
in his tcltk2 package, but as far as I know, that plan hasn't yet 
materialized. If I knew how to supply a Tcl/Tk package in an R package, 
I could put Tablelist directly in the Rcmdr.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

John

-- 
John Fox, Professor Emeritus
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
web: https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/jfox/