Ah ha! I wasn't aware of the getOption("device") call before. It appears that as soon as I load the cairoDevice library my default device gets set to Cairo, which explains why the Cairo device behavior matches what I was seeing before.
This is now purely a cairo device issue, so I will pursue it with that package's maintainer. Thanks for your quick reply. Steve Steve Wollkind Associate Analyst Geode Capital Management, LLC 1 Post Office Square / 28th Floor / Boston, MA 02109 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (617) 392-8991 Fax: (617) 476-6389 This e-mail, and any attachments hereto, are intended for use by the addressee(s) only and may contain information that is (i) confidential information of Geode Capital Management, LLC and/or its affiliates, and/or (ii) proprietary information of Geode Capital Management, LLC and/or its affiliates. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, or if you have otherwise received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify me by telephone (you may call collect), or by e-mail, and please permanently delete the original, any print outs and any copies of the foregoing. Any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Martin Maechler Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 10:24 AM To: Wollkind, Steven Cc: r-help@r-project.org Subject: Re: [R] Graphics devices: windows() and x11() vs default >>>>> "WS" == Wollkind, Steven <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>>> on Wed, 7 Nov 2007 09:01:24 -0500 writes: WS> I'm noticing some differences between making an explicit WS> call to windows() to generate a graphics device and WS> going with whatever R gives you when you just start WS> plotting, which raises the question of just what the WS> nature of the default device is. I've had a hard time WS> researching this so far, so I'm asking the list. getOption("device") {the one you set by options(device = ...) is your current default graphics device. That is platform dependent, and from what you say below, I assume you have to use MS Windows, where typically this default device *is* equivalent to windows(). However, there are many ways to change this default, by initialization code, or loading other packages which change it or ... Before you can get more help, we need to see your getOption("device") and probably also sessionInfo() Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich WS> Here are two code snippets: WS> ############################### WS> ## Snippet 1 WS> ############################### WS> windows() WS> layout(matrix(c(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9),3,3,byrow=T)) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> ################################### WS> ## Snippet 2 WS> ################################### WS> layout(matrix(c(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9),3,3,byrow=T)) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> plot(1:10) WS> Run snippet 1, then resize the device. If your system is like mine the WS> redrawing after resizing will be quick and nice. Then run snippet 2 and WS> try the same thing. On my system I have to wait ~1 second per plot as WS> they each get redrawn. My question boils down to "What is the nature of WS> the default device you get without an explicit device generating call WS> and why does it behave differently?" WS> Now, this is obviously not that important in most cases, but I've been WS> working with the cairoDevice package (and will be emailing its WS> maintainer soon) and the graphics devices that it produces behave like WS> snippet 2 and not snippet 1. As a first step to trying to correct this WS> I'm simply trying to understand the differences between the devices you WS> get with both methods. WS> Thanks WS> Steve Wollkind WS> Steve Wollkind WS> Associate Analyst WS> Geode Capital Management, LLC WS> 1 Post Office Square / 28th Floor / Boston, MA 02109 WS> [EMAIL PROTECTED] WS> Tel: (617) 392-8991 WS> Fax: (617) 476-6389 ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.