Sys.setlocale() and text()

Thanks very much for the response.  I think I left out an important
detail, however.

I want my lowercase sigma to be displayed in a specific font from the
Rdevga file (my project involves fonts).  So far as I know, quote() does
not allow me to select a font.  Thus, I am specifically interested in
the text() command and reasons why my example code performs differently
in R 2.3.0 vs 2.6.1.
I think the only thing which needs explaining is why it worked in 2.3.1: 
you can't usually switch 8-bit locales in an application on Windows and 
expect to get the right font.  Most likely it was fortuitous that it 
worked: it was only intended to work in a multibyte locale (see the entry 
in CHANGES for 2.3.0), and that principally to aid testing of non-Western 
locales by the developers.

But if you are really interested in differences then you will need to 
study the changes in the source code for yourself: the price you paid does 
not include that level of support.

One of the holdups has been that we tried still to support Windows 9X/ME. 
That will be dropped as from R 2.7.0 and so we can use Unicode to access 
the glyphs via text().  Your example works for me in R-devel, so please 
try that in a day or two (I think it needs a recent change).

Note though that switching locales within a session is fragile: it 
invalidates all existing 8-bit data, and so for example repainting the 
graphics window or the console can change the glyphs displayed.  (In 
R-devel, try changing back to US and resize the graphics window.)
Thanks,
Ed

Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
Try this:

plot(1:10, main = quote(sigma ^ 2))

On Dec 11, 2007 10:09 PM, Ed Merkle <edgar.merkle at wichita.edu> wrote:
Dear HelpeRs,

I have a question about the Sys.setlocale() command and plotting.  I am
running Windows XP, with R 2.6.1.  My default locale is English_United
States.1252.

I am trying to add a lowercase sigma to a plot using the following code:

Sys.setlocale("LC_CTYPE","greek")
plot(1:10,1:10)
text(4,3,"\xF3")

For R 2.6.1, this code gives me the glyph from my default (1252) instead
of from the 1253 codes.  For an older version of R (2.3.0) on the same
computer, this code gives me the lowercase sigma that I wanted.  I have
been unable to pinpoint what has changed.  Thanks for the help, and I
apologize if I am missing something obvious.

--
Ed Merkle, PhD
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Psychology
Wichita State University
Wichita, KS 67260

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Sys.setlocale() and text()

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