On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 at 04:24, Paul Murrell <p...@stat.auckland.ac.nz> wrote: > > Hi > > I have created an R branch that contains a potential fix ... > > https://svn.r-project.org/R/branches/R-symfam/ > > This allows, for example, ... > > cairo_pdf(symbolfamily="OpenSymbol") > > ... to specify that the OpenSymbol family should be used as the "symbol" > font (e.g., for "plotmath") in R.
Will this be a default on Linux? Or are you planning any mechanism (env variable, option...) to make it the default? Because, otherwise, as pango is updated across distributions, R graphics will be "broken" by default unless the user explicitly calls the graphics device in that way to set that option, which I would say is uncommon. Iñaki > This is just a separate branch for now because, while I have tested it > under Unbuntu 18.04 and Fedora 31, I cannot even build R for Windows > (right now) or Mac (ever) and I do not want to drop a bomb on R-devel at > this stage of the release process for R 4.0.0. > > The attached file contains at least an outline of steps required to do a > minimal test if anyone wants to try the fix on Linux. > > cc'ing Simon and Jeroen in case they are able to help with checking that > this builds and works on Mac and/or Windows. > > NOTEs: > - 'symbolfamily' can only be specified when a graphics device is opened, > and it is then fixed for that device. > - on Windows, for cairo-based devices, the "symbol" font is still > hard-coded as "Standard Symbols L" > > > Paul > > On 30/03/20 8:15 am, Paul Murrell wrote: > > Hi > > > > Thanks for your input on this Iñaki and Nicolas. > > > > I am starting testing an R fix for this problem today. > > > > As suggested, the plan is to allow the R user to specify a font family > > other than "symbol" for plotmath output (or, more generally, in R > > parlance, for 'font=5' or 'fontface=5') on a Cairo-based graphics device. > > > > Paul > > > > > > On 27/03/20 11:30 pm, Iñaki Ucar wrote: > >> On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 at 12:25, Nicolas Mailhot > >> <nicolas.mail...@laposte.net> wrote: > >>> > >>> <snip> > >>> > >>> R brought this all on itself by hardcoding a Windows-only “Symbol” font > >>> family name in its default conf. Linux systems are UTF-8 by default for > >>> ~20 years now, they don’t need the forcing of magic font families to > >>> handle symbols not present in the 8-bit legacy Windows encodings. > >>> > >>> The actual effect of this conf is not the selection of font files with > >>> special and unusual symbols. It is to priorize fonts that match the > >>> "Symbol" magic name. And those fonts are few and crumbling on Linux > >>> systems, because no one has needed to bother with them since Linux > >>> switched to UTF-8 last millenium. > >>> > >>> Just stop using “Symbol” in R and things will work a lot better. > >>> Alternatively, prepare to maintain the “Symbol” aliasing stack in > >>> fontconfig (and fight with wine for it), because *no* *one* *else* > >>> *cares* about this legacy Windows-specific stuff. > >> > >> So, in the light of Nicolas' input (thanks!), I think that font > >> selection should be fixed upstream in R. I'd be happy to put all this > >> together in R's bugzilla, but I don't have an account. Could someone > >> please invite me? > >> > >> Iñaki > >> > >> ______________________________________________ > >> R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > >> > > -- > Dr Paul Murrell > Department of Statistics > The University of Auckland > Private Bag 92019 > Auckland > New Zealand > 64 9 3737599 x85392 > p...@stat.auckland.ac.nz > http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/ -- Iñaki Úcar On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 at 04:24, Paul Murrell <p...@stat.auckland.ac.nz> wrote: > > Hi > > I have created an R branch that contains a potential fix ... > > https://svn.r-project.org/R/branches/R-symfam/ > > This allows, for example, ... > > cairo_pdf(symbolfamily="OpenSymbol") > > ... to specify that the OpenSymbol family should be used as the "symbol" > font (e.g., for "plotmath") in R. > > This is just a separate branch for now because, while I have tested it > under Unbuntu 18.04 and Fedora 31, I cannot even build R for Windows > (right now) or Mac (ever) and I do not want to drop a bomb on R-devel at > this stage of the release process for R 4.0.0. > > The attached file contains at least an outline of steps required to do a > minimal test if anyone wants to try the fix on Linux. > > cc'ing Simon and Jeroen in case they are able to help with checking that > this builds and works on Mac and/or Windows. > > NOTEs: > - 'symbolfamily' can only be specified when a graphics device is opened, > and it is then fixed for that device. > - on Windows, for cairo-based devices, the "symbol" font is still > hard-coded as "Standard Symbols L" > > Paul > > On 30/03/20 8:15 am, Paul Murrell wrote: > > Hi > > > > Thanks for your input on this Iñaki and Nicolas. > > > > I am starting testing an R fix for this problem today. > > > > As suggested, the plan is to allow the R user to specify a font family > > other than "symbol" for plotmath output (or, more generally, in R > > parlance, for 'font=5' or 'fontface=5') on a Cairo-based graphics device. > > > > Paul > > > > > > On 27/03/20 11:30 pm, Iñaki Ucar wrote: > >> On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 at 12:25, Nicolas Mailhot > >> <nicolas.mail...@laposte.net> wrote: > >>> > >>> <snip> > >>> > >>> R brought this all on itself by hardcoding a Windows-only “Symbol” font > >>> family name in its default conf. Linux systems are UTF-8 by default for > >>> ~20 years now, they don’t need the forcing of magic font families to > >>> handle symbols not present in the 8-bit legacy Windows encodings. > >>> > >>> The actual effect of this conf is not the selection of font files with > >>> special and unusual symbols. It is to priorize fonts that match the > >>> "Symbol" magic name. And those fonts are few and crumbling on Linux > >>> systems, because no one has needed to bother with them since Linux > >>> switched to UTF-8 last millenium. > >>> > >>> Just stop using “Symbol” in R and things will work a lot better. > >>> Alternatively, prepare to maintain the “Symbol” aliasing stack in > >>> fontconfig (and fight with wine for it), because *no* *one* *else* > >>> *cares* about this legacy Windows-specific stuff. > >> > >> So, in the light of Nicolas' input (thanks!), I think that font > >> selection should be fixed upstream in R. I'd be happy to put all this > >> together in R's bugzilla, but I don't have an account. Could someone > >> please invite me? > >> > >> Iñaki > >> > >> ______________________________________________ > >> R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > >> > > -- > Dr Paul Murrell > Department of Statistics > The University of Auckland > Private Bag 92019 > Auckland > New Zealand > 64 9 3737599 x85392 > p...@stat.auckland.ac.nz > http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/ -- Iñaki Úcar ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
