R on Darwin/X11

I will no longer maintain the Darwin/X11 version, since

(a) You can get a better version from fink -- in particular
if you set up fink properly you will not have the missing dylib
problems.

(b) I have agreed with Jeff Whitaker (fink R maintainer)
that he will put r-base, r-base-atlas, r-base-gnome, and r-base-atlas-gnome
in fink.

(c) I have agreed with Stefano that we will get working on
an Aqua GUI for R and he will get working on a Quartz device.
This will mean Quartz/Aqua wrappers around the
Darwin/X11 version of R, best of both worlds.

This is quite ambitious, and I'm generally supportive. I think there 
are probably a lot of Mac users for whom this would make it more 
likely they would use R.

I do have one question. Would the ability to work in X11 mode go away?

Here's why I ask. Standard practice in the Mac windowing environment 
has always been that the window that receives keyboard input MUST be 
on top. When I'm using R, I find this restriction extremely annoying 
and counter-productive. I normally have the graphics window partially 
covering the top right of my command input window. That way I can 
make the graphics window larger. Many, if not most, X11 window 
managers have an option to allow this (it goes by various names; 
"follow-focus" is one, because focus follows the mouse). Please, 
please, please, if at all possible, have the "Quartz/Aqua" wrapper 
allow follow-focus. In all likelihood, "input window on top" is so 
ingrained in Apple's world-view that it won't be possible, in which 
case my request is to allow continued use in X11 mode.

To put it briefly, given a choice between X11 mode allowing 
follow-focus, and an Aqua mode that doesn't, this is a matter of 
personal preference that I feel strongly about, and I would choose 
the X11 mode.

(d) I have agreed with Jeff that we will start putting R packages
into the fink system. He has already installed rpy, which
went without a glitch, and which now allows one to use
all of R from python.

===
Jan de Leeuw; Professor and Chair, UCLA Department of Statistics;
US mail: 9432 Boelter Hall, Box 951554, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1554
phone (310)-825-9550;  fax (310)-206-5658;  email: deleeuw@stat.ucla.edu
homepage: http://www.stat.ucla.edu/~deleeuw
========================================================
          No matter where you go, there you are. --- Buckaroo Banzai
                   http://www.stat.ucla.edu/~deleeuw/sounds/nomatter.au
========================================================

Thanks
-Don

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Don MacQueen
Environmental Protection Department
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Livermore, CA, USA
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