R versions and PostScript files

Dear R users,

I have a desktop computer and a laptop, both of them with
Ubuntu Lucid. The former has R2.10 installed from Ubuntu
repositories (this is the most recent version in the
repositories), while the latter has R2.13 from the CRAN
repositories.

I noticed that postscript files generated with R2.10 are
"better"  than files generated with the latest release of R,
in particular for plots with colored areas, such as the
output of image or persp. The thing is that my ps viewer
(e.g. gv or evince) is very slow in opening ps files from
R2.13, while it smoothly displays ps files from R2.10,
regardless of "encapsulation".

I think this is related to differences in the way the ps
file is generated by the two versions of R, but I don't
know how to go deeper in the matter.

Is there anyone experiencing the same issue? Is there any
solution?

Thank you in advance

Cheers
Gaetano

Hi Gaetano,
First, to be sure of the nature of the problem:
When you compare the speed of display of a graph generated
by R-2.10 with the speed of display of a graph generated
by R-2.13, are these two graphs created using identical
commands in each version of R? I.e. is it the case that
they should be identical graphs?

If not, then (depending on how you generated them) it might
be that a graph you have generated on R-2.10 consists of
"vector" graphics, while another, generated on R-2.13 consists
of bit-map graphics. Display of a PostScript file consisting
of bit-maps will always be slower that display of a "vector
graphics" file.

Have you tried copying the same PS file from your desktop
to your laptop, or vice versa, in order to compare the speed
of display of the same file on the two different machines?

If you wish, you can send me privately
a) A PS file generated on R-2.10 (desktop)
b) A PS file generated on R-2.13 (laptop) using identical
   commands (i.e. in principle the same)

where the two files exhibit the difference in display speed
which you describe. I will then attempt to diagnise the
problem (please also send the R commands used).

Ted.

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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding at wlandres.net>
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Date: 21-Jul-11                                       Time: 12:39:00
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