trellis.device in .First (PR#6812)

On Mon, 26 Apr 2004, Paul Murrell wrote:

Hi


Martin Maechler wrote:

"BDR" == Prof Brian Ripley <ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk>
  on Fri, 23 Apr 2004 08:21:34 +0100 (BST) writes:

  <........>

   BDR> It is a matter for discussion (with the lattice
   BDR> maintainer) whether trellis.device should help you out
   BDR> here by importing the devices from package graphics.  I
   BDR> think adding (conditionalized on the platform)

   BDR> importFrom(graphics, windows, postscript, pdf, pictex,
   BDR>            win.metafile, win.print, png, jpeg, bmp, xfig, bitmap)

   BDR> to its NAMESPACE might be worth considering.

   BDR> Alternatively, device.call <- get(device) could be put
   BDR> in a try call, followed by a try on
   BDR> getFromNamespace("graphics", device).

That's a very good idea, I'd support quite a bit.

I think I would go with the alternative approach
(where you probably meant to say  device <- getOption("device") first?),
since the importFrom(..) approach leeds to a somewhat tedious maintenance
effort to keep up the list of available devices for the different platforms
(For MacOS X one has to include quartz() only in the situations
where it's available) where as Deepayan (the lattice
maintainer) could rely on getOption("device") to be ok
{and as you proposed would be on guard using try() or its newer siblings}.

I probably should have thought of this sooner, but anyway ...
Perhaps a better solution would be to split out another package called 
"devices".  Then both "graphics" and "grid" could require "devices" (so 
whenever you go to do any graphics you are guaranteed access to the 
default devices).

I am not sure it is better, but it is not something we can do for a few 
months (that is, not in a patchlevel release).  

It's not quite that simple 
-- where would you put ps.options?  Presumably in devices, and then 
people would need to change their hooks again ....

Incidentally, I think the name `devices' is rather narrow-minded (as is
.Devices borrowed from S-PLUS).  They are _graphics_ devices and we might
one day want audio devices or even devices for other types of
visualization such as dynamic graphics.

   BDR> On Fri, 23 Apr 2004, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:

   >> 1) On the first point, please do read the NEWS file for R
   >> 1.9.0.
   >> 
   >> .Rprofile and .First have always been run before the
   >> default packages are loaded in .First.sys, to allow them
   >> to be changed.
   >> 
   >> So this *is* a documented change in behaviour, not a bug.
   >> If I do
   >> 
   >> .First <- function() {library(lattice); trellis.device()}
   >> 
   >> This happens on all platforms.  You need
   >> 
   >> .First <- function() {library(graphics);
   >> library(lattice); trellis.device()}
   >> 
   >> That is true of starting any graphics device in .Rprofile
   >> or .First.

   BDR> -- Brian D. Ripley, ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk Professor of
   BDR> Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
   BDR> University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self) 1
   BDR> South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA) Oxford OX1 3TG,
   BDR> UK Fax: +44 1865 272595

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