From ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk  Sun Nov 11 17:40:13 2001
From: ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk (ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk)
Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2001 18:40:13 +0100 (MET)
Subject: [Rd] png output requires X connection (PR#1165)
Message-ID: <200111111740.SAA29642@pubhealth.ku.dk>

I was extremely disappointed by this report.  Unix/Linux R users should
appreciate what was ported from the Windows version for them and not send
a bug report on a well-documented restriction.  Especially when the `See
Also' mentions an alternative!

The comment only applies to R on Unix/Linux, not to the original png
device on Windows.  It ignores the bitmap() device which we also provide,
and the warnings in the help page, to wit:

     R can be compiled without support for either or both of these
     devices: this will be reported if you attempt to use them on a
     system where they are not supported.  They will not be
     available if R has been started with `--gui=none' (and will give a
     different error message).

Now, why send a bug report about something documented on the help page?
(And you need a X display for any other --gui option, including the
default.)   Please do read the section in the R FAQ about what is a bug,
and act on it.


On Sun, 11 Nov 2001 edd@debian.org wrote:

> Full_Name: Dirk Eddelbuettel
> Version: 1.3.1
> OS: Linux
> Submission from: (NULL) (65.184.214.9)
>
>
>
> [ This bug report has previously been filed as #115186 in the Debian Bug
> Tracking System. --edd ]
>
>
> From: Ryan Murray <rmurray@cyberhqz.com>
> Subject: r-base: png output requires X connection
> To: submit@bugs.debian.org
> Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 13:40:06 -0700
>
> Package: r-base
> Version: 1.3.1-2
> Severity: wishlist
>
> R doesn't allow use of png() without an X display.  It would be great for
> automated graph generation if an X display were not required.

See the `See Also' on ?png!

>  While one can
> workaround this by using postscript() and the png output of ghostscript, the
> output does not look as good as R using the png() device directly.
>
> -- System Information
> Debian Release: testing/unstable
> Kernel Version: Linux cyberhq 2.4.9 #1 SMP Sun Aug 19 21:47:15 PDT 2001 i686
> unknown
>
> Versions of the packages r-base depends on:
> ii  libc6          2.2.4-3        GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone
> ii  libjpeg62      6b-1.3         The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG runtime li
> ii  libncurses5    5.2.20010318-3 Shared libraries for terminal handling
> ii  libpng2        1.0.12-2       PNG library - runtime
> ii  libreadline4   4.2-5          GNU readline and history libraries, run-time
> ii  perl           5.6.1-5        Larry Wall's Practical Extraction and Report
> ii  tcl8.0         8.0.5-6        The Tool Command Language (TCL) v8.0 - Run-T
> ii  tk8.0          8.0.5-9        The Tk toolkit for TCL and X11 v8.0 - Run-Ti
> ii  xlibs          4.1.0-7        X Window System client libraries
> ii  zlib-bin       1.1.3-16       compression library - sample programs
> ii  zlib1g         1.1.3-16       compression library - runtime
> ii  atlas2-base    3.2.1-12       Automatically Tuned Linear Algebra Software
>         ^^^ (Provides virtual package blas2)
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley@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 272860 (secr)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595


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[Rd] png output requires X connection (PR#1165)
ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk