R devel - Apr 2022 - Undocumented 4.2.0 changes in grid text handling?

Hello everyone,

I've been testing R 4.2.0 release candidates for some time and have spotted
a few changes that are not documented in
https://svn.r-project.org/R/branches/R-4-2-branch/src/library/grid/inst/doc/changes.txt,
general R NEWS, nor in this blogpost
https://developer.r-project.org/Blog/public/2021/12/14/updating-graphics-devices-for-r-4.2.0/index.html
.

In R 4.1.3, grid::gpar(fontface= "bold") results in a gpar
"list" with
$fontface and (legacy?) $font entries, but in R 4.2.0, there is only $font.
In the manual, font is described only for backward compatibility.

I think there are more possibly subtle changes around text rendering
because bold fontface and inter-word spacing in the package {gridtext}
happened to stop working, see the issue at
https://github.com/wilkelab/gridtext/issues/24. Turns out it is pretty hard
to debug and to solve. Do you have some hints about other changes in grid
that could explain so different behaviour?

Many thanks and kind regards!
Jan

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Hi

 From the github issue discussion, it looks like you have detected the 
problem, which appears to be that 'gridtext' was paying attention to 
gp$fontface, whereas 'grid' internally focuses on gp$font.

I created the problem for 'gridtext' by "tidying up" and
removing
gp$fontface internally.  Apologies for that.

I think I can partially hide behind the fact that these are internal 
details to 'grid', which is why the change was not documented in the 
places that you point out.

Please let me know if you still think that there is an error in 'grid' 
that needs fixing.

Paul

On 22/04/2022 3:38 am, Jan Net?k wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I've been testing R 4.2.0 release candidates for some time and have
spotted
> a few changes that are not documented in
>
https://svn.r-project.org/R/branches/R-4-2-branch/src/library/grid/inst/doc/changes.txt
>
<https://svn.r-project.org/R/branches/R-4-2-branch/src/library/grid/inst/doc/changes.txt>,
> general R NEWS, nor in this blogpost
>
https://developer.r-project.org/Blog/public/2021/12/14/updating-graphics-devices-for-r-4.2.0/index.html
>
<https://developer.r-project.org/Blog/public/2021/12/14/updating-graphics-devices-for-r-4.2.0/index.html>
> .
> 
> In R 4.1.3, grid::gpar(fontface= "bold") results in a gpar
"list" with
> $fontface and (legacy?) $font entries, but in R 4.2.0, there is only $font.
> In the manual, font is described only for backward compatibility.
> 
> I think there are more possibly subtle changes around text rendering
> because bold fontface and inter-word spacing in the package {gridtext}
> happened to stop working, see the issue at
> https://github.com/wilkelab/gridtext/issues/24 
> <https://github.com/wilkelab/gridtext/issues/24>. 
> Turns out it is pretty hard
> to debug and to solve. Do you have some hints about other changes in grid
> that could explain so different behaviour?
> 
> Many thanks and kind regards!
> Jan
> 
> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel 
> <https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel>
-- 
Dr Paul Murrell
Department of Statistics
The University of Auckland
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Auckland
New Zealand
64 9 3737599 x85392
paul at stat.auckland.ac.nz
http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/