R devel - Jan 1998 - a -nographics option to R

Right now the standard R.profile assigns the .First function as

 .First <- function() {
   if (interactive() && getenv("DISPLAY") != "")
x11()
 }

Is it reasonable to extend that a bit and use

 .First <- function() {
   if (interactive() && getenv("DISPLAY") != ""
&& ! (getenv("R_NOX") != "")) x11()
 }

or something like that then put a -nographics flag into the R script
that would set R_NOX.  I am encountering the same kind of difficulty
that Peter Dalgaard mentioned when working remotely over a slow
connection.  I'm just checking that the compiled R works properly on
the other computer and I don't want to wait for it to spring up the
X11 window every time it starts.
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Douglas Bates <bates@stat.wisc.edu> writes:
> that would set R_NOX.  I am encountering the same kind of difficulty
> that Peter Dalgaard mentioned when working remotely over a slow
> connection.  I'm just checking that the compiled R works properly on
> the other computer and I don't want to wait for it to spring up the
> X11 window every time it starts.
The current plans are to get rid of the initial graphics startup
altogether and make the plot commands do it automagically instead of
faulting when there's no graphics device. (We seem to have committed
our usual sin of discussing things in R-core that might as well have
been discussed on R-devel.)

BTW: If it's ssh that does this to you, note that it has a config file
that can turn the X transport off. If it's telnet, I wouldn't know,
but you might murder the DISPLAY setting by invoking as

DISPLAY= R

(which, incidentally, is fewer keypresses than "R -nographics"...)

Requires an sh-family shell, though.

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph: (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard@biostat.ku.dk)             FAX: (+45) 35327907

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