The preferred solutions in the post all seem to involve another language: - tcl to use tk - Python to use wxWidgets
and other solutions mentioned also seem to involve other languages: - Visual Basic - Java (Swing?) Is there some key missing feature in R with regards to GUIs that requires interposing another language? On 10/15/05, Philippe Grosjean <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello, > > Following a discussion initiated on r-devel, that mentions SciViews-R > and other GUIs issues for R, I would like to make comments (and would be > happy if these comments would initiate interesting initiatives). > > A big, big problem with SciViews-R is that a part of it is written in > Visual Basic 6, a M$$$$ language, not supported any more, buggy, non > transposable to other platforms, etc, etc. Last year, I started to > rewrite SciViews-R, using much more native R code, which will ultimately > give what I call a "R GUI API", currently partly implemented in the > SciViews bundle available on CRAN. That "R GUI API" is a lot of work: > thousands of lines of code for the full API, and as I said, only a part > of it is currently implemented. That API is developed with reusability > in mind: platform-independent, better basis to rewrite SciViews-R in a > different language, and freely available for use by other GUIs. However, > nobody seems to be interested by this API (may be because it is not > documented enough?). Even simple functions like progress() in the svMisc > package are ignored, although they could be useful to some people. Well, > I regret this situation, but I don't care much more than that: after > all, the main goal is to make it the basis of the future > platform-independent implementation of SciViews-R. > > Now, regarding the rewritting of SciViews-R itself in a > platform-independent environment (i.e., language + graphical widget), > this is not undertaken currently for the reason I am not satisfied > enough with all curerently existing solutions for various reasons. I > give just a few explanations here: > > 1) R + Tcl + Tk. The tcltk R package is widely available and largely > debugged. However, there are still problems to make a 100% Tcl console > for R (look at Peter Dalgaard's attempt in the package, not complete, > not 100% operational, currently). Another problem: the Tk widgets are a > little bit old-fashion, and I miss a lot of features provided by more > advanded graphical widgets like wxWidgets, for instance. However, it > seems to be the best bet, currently. So, I explore various kinds of > additions that could make Tcl + Tk a better and more modern GUI > implementation. Look at http://www.sciviews.org/SciViews-R... the > "tcltk2" package. In that package, I add "Tile", a series of themable > and more modern widgets, the famous "tkTable", a tooltip widget, a text > widget with synthax colouring, a tree widget, etc. + some Windows > specific stuff that help regarding problems like focusing on a Tk > window, and communicating with other apps. However, I face the problem > of installing all these additional widgets seemlessly under all > paltforms supported by R. For the pure Tcl widgets, no problems. But for > widgets with compiled code, like Tile or tkTable, this is much more > difficult... And since I mainly work on Windows... > > 2) wxWidgets. This is a really great, very capable and > platform-independent solution. I like very much James Wettenhal attemps > of using wxPython (wxWidgets + Python) through RSPython and the > experimental wxPython R package. However, it is still alpha, there are > problems to finalize it, and his author is not continuing its > development for reasons that are personal to him. So, I am not sure we > will have a usable version available soon to integrate wxWidgets with R > and use it for a R GUI. > > 3) JAVA. There is a good R GUI written in JAVA: JGR. Moreover, something > like the Eclipse platform is a very promizing environment for a > rich-featured R IDE. JAVA specialists in my University say such a GUI, > written in JAVA will be relatively slow compared to other solutions. > However, JGR is a good actual counter-example. > > 4) GTK2. Great widgets... but forgets Windows. I installed and used Gimp > under Windows. This is certainly the best demonstration on what can be > done with GTK2 under Windows. I must admit I am very disappointed as a > Windows user: look&feel is very different, and irritating in several > aspects. > > So, a long mail to conclude that, if I still haven't started to > implement the platform-independent version of SciViews-R, it is because > I am not convinced that any of the currently available R + rich-featured > and platform-independent widgets solutions available is the one that > will make it possible to reimplement SciViews-R in a streamless and > relatively bug-free manner. To summarize, the currently best candidate > is R + tcltk + tcltk2. I am convinced that R + Python + wxWidgets is by > far a much better solution, but it is still in alpha development. > Eclipse + JGR looks promising, and GTK2 is there too, but not enough > integrated under Windows for me to start using such a solution, as a > Windows user. > > I don't have much time to dedicate to SciViews-R and to the Sciviews R > GUI API for the moment, and I will certainly focus on four hot topics: > (1) developing the actual SciViews-R as a better teaching aid (I use and > need it for my own courses!), (2) contributing to the development of > Tinn-R, (3) further integrating R Commander with SciViews-R, and (4) > integrating Rpad with SciViews-R. However, I will have various contracts > in 2006-2007 where the development of SciViews-R is a part of the job. > So, I will have the opportunity to hire one or two developers, and this > will hopefully speed up SciViews-R development in a directly that will > satisfy more users. > > Otherwise, I am open to any suggestion, and more importantly, to any > idea of collaboration with other R GUI developers, as it is currently > the case with John Fox (R Commander integration with SciViews-R), > Jose-Claudio Faria (Tinn-R developement and Tinn-R compatibility with > SciViews-R), and Tom Short (Rpad developments and compatibility with > SciViews-R). I think it is important to insist on this, in a world > populated with a myriad of slowly developed, half finished, half > featured R GUIs, made by people that look too individualist in my view > to be able of working all together and to write a single R GUI that has > any chance to be full-featured, well-documented, reasonnably bug-free, > truly platform-independent, in a near future. > > Best, > > Philippe Grosjean > > ..............................................<°}))><........ > ) ) ) ) ) > ( ( ( ( ( Prof. Philippe Grosjean > ) ) ) ) ) > ( ( ( ( ( Numerical Ecology of Aquatic Systems > ) ) ) ) ) Mons-Hainaut University, Pentagone (3D08) > ( ( ( ( ( Academie Universitaire Wallonie-Bruxelles > ) ) ) ) ) 8, av du Champ de Mars, 7000 Mons, Belgium > ( ( ( ( ( > ) ) ) ) ) phone: + 32.65.37.34.97, fax: + 32.65.37.30.54 > ( ( ( ( ( email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ) ) ) ) ) > ( ( ( ( ( web: http://www.umh.ac.be/~econum > ) ) ) ) ) http://www.sciviews.org > ( ( ( ( ( > .............................................................. > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
