R devel - May 2014 - Request to Replace Recordplot ,, replayplot

Record plot which stores a plot to an internal R data structure and Replay
Plot which
replays the plot enables one to keep plots around and use them accross
sessions at least until version 3.  If you cannot restore old plots and
treat them as data and save accross sessions, there is little reason for
recordPlot.  Either R needs to dispense with internal formats entirelly, a
bad move in my opinion or revise the structure so that it can be read from
a file and then replayed and augmented.  This internal facility, in some
ways equivalent to the matlab fig is good to have around.  It would not be
needed if one of the data formats already stored i.e. pdf ... etc. could be
read in and used then as internal plot.  Your thoughts
            --mike

-- 
Michael Cohen
Work: 808 Commonwealth Avenue, Actuarial Sciences, Boston Mass
Home: 25 Stearns Road #3 Brookline, MA
 Ph:  1-857-389-3432(c) 1-617-758-5509(w) 617-734-8828(h) Fax: 617-353-7755

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Hi Michael,

It is not needed to post this two days in a row on the same mailing
list. Also if you search the archives, you find several previous
discussions on this topic that might be helpful to develop a more
informed opinion on the topic.

In short: the problem is well known. Several people have argued for
the benefits of supporting (serializable) plot objects similar to
matlab figs, however apparently this is not trivial to implement. As
with most software, the challenging aspect is to maintain backward
compatibility so that it doesn't break everything that currently
relies on it.

Perhaps if you study the source code of the R graphics device to gain
better understanding of the problem, you can develop a proposal or
implement a proof of concept of how you think this could be realized.
That might provide a more constructive basis for discussion.




On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 11:58 AM, Michael Cohen <mike1947 at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Record plot which stores a plot to an internal R data structure and Replay
> Plot which
> replays the plot enables one to keep plots around and use them accross
> sessions at least until version 3.  If you cannot restore old plots and
> treat them as data and save accross sessions, there is little reason for
> recordPlot.  Either R needs to dispense with internal formats entirelly, a
> bad move in my opinion or revise the structure so that it can be read from
> a file and then replayed and augmented.  This internal facility, in some
> ways equivalent to the matlab fig is good to have around.  It would not be
> needed if one of the data formats already stored i.e. pdf ... etc. could be
> read in and used then as internal plot.  Your thoughts
>             --mike
>
> --
> Michael Cohen
> Work: 808 Commonwealth Avenue, Actuarial Sciences, Boston Mass
> Home: 25 Stearns Road #3 Brookline, MA
>  Ph:  1-857-389-3432(c) 1-617-758-5509(w) 617-734-8828(h) Fax: 617-353-7755
>
>         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel

Hi,

no need to repost and start yet another thread on the same topic as
you posted yesterday (R-devel thread ''ReplayPlot, limited to single
session for RecordPlot()", 2014-04-30).  It just makes it hard to keep
a constructive conversation in one place and it clutters up the
archives.

Replaying plots within the current session is still useful. I'm sure
others would love to be able to replay saved R plots across sessions.
However, there was (most likely) a very good reason for not using it
across session, which is why R added the assertion that it's not done
- it's to avoid harm/misuse.

If you search the R-devel archives [http://www.rseek.org/], you'll
find some discussion on this topic, e.g. R-devel threads
"inconsistency/bug in recordPlot/replayPlot", 2014-09-23
[https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2013-September/067471.html].
You'll find that Paul Murrell and others have though about this a lot.

Hopefully, this gives you enough to research to appreciate the problem.

/Henrik

On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 11:58 AM, Michael Cohen <mike1947 at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Record plot which stores a plot to an internal R data structure and Replay
> Plot which
> replays the plot enables one to keep plots around and use them accross
> sessions at least until version 3.  If you cannot restore old plots and
> treat them as data and save accross sessions, there is little reason for
> recordPlot.  Either R needs to dispense with internal formats entirelly, a
> bad move in my opinion or revise the structure so that it can be read from
> a file and then replayed and augmented.  This internal facility, in some
> ways equivalent to the matlab fig is good to have around.  It would not be
> needed if one of the data formats already stored i.e. pdf ... etc. could be
> read in and used then as internal plot.  Your thoughts
>             --mike
>
> --
> Michael Cohen
> Work: 808 Commonwealth Avenue, Actuarial Sciences, Boston Mass
> Home: 25 Stearns Road #3 Brookline, MA
>  Ph:  1-857-389-3432(c) 1-617-758-5509(w) 617-734-8828(h) Fax: 617-353-7755
>
>         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel