R devel - Mar 2008 - cpu usage high with windows change dir / winDialogString (PR#11045)

Good afternoon,

This is possibly a windows only bug, definitely of comparatively low
importance - but for the sake of completeness here we go.  I've
searched http://bugs.R-project.org/ etc., but can find no mention.

For RGui.exe, the CPU usage goes to 100% for certain dialog boxes for
the duration that the dialog box is visible, e.g.

* check CPU usage is low
* On the RGui.exe menu chose File / Change dir...
* the CPU usage goes to 100%
* hit OK
* the CPU usage goes back down again

This also occurs when I incant Help / Apropos or Help / Search help...
or at the "command prompt"
> winDialogString("hello", "nonsense")
Note the latter also applies to R.exe inside a cmd window.

I've checked this with a few windows machines for 2.6.2 & 2.6.1 -
including with --vanilla.  This machine here has the
following...
> sessionInfo()
R version 2.6.2 (2008-02-08)
i386-pc-mingw32

locale:
LC_COLLATE=English_Ireland.1252;LC_CTYPE=English_Ireland.1252;LC_MONETARY=English_Ireland.1252;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=English_Ireland.1252

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods  
base
> version
               _
platform       i386-pc-mingw32
arch           i386
os             mingw32
system         i386, mingw32
status
major          2
minor          6.2
year           2008
month          02
day            08
svn rev        44383
language       R
version.string R version 2.6.2 (2008-02-08)

I am not familiar with the R sources, so the following should be taken
with a large grain of salt... to my uninitiated eyes it appears to be
something to do with askstring() in src\extra\graphapp\dialogs.c
or possibly handle_message_dialog() - I'm afraid I have never
programmed windows at a low level so I'm not sure what's going on
here...

I am of course available to help pin this down - but unfortunately I
don't have a development environment here.

Best Regards,
Sean O'Riordain
Dublin, Ireland
not affiliated...
seanpor A T acm D ot org

On 28/03/2008 12:05 PM, seanpor at acm.org wrote:
> Good afternoon,
> 
> This is possibly a windows only bug, definitely of comparatively low
> importance - but for the sake of completeness here we go.  I've
> searched http://bugs.R-project.org/ etc., but can find no mention.
> 
> For RGui.exe, the CPU usage goes to 100% for certain dialog boxes for
> the duration that the dialog box is visible, e.g.
> 
> * check CPU usage is low
> * On the RGui.exe menu chose File / Change dir...
> * the CPU usage goes to 100%
> * hit OK
> * the CPU usage goes back down again
What is the bug here?  I'd guess it's not R using the cpu, rather some 
other process hooked to the dialog, but even if it really is R, why is 
this a bug?

Duncan Murdoch
> This also occurs when I incant Help / Apropos or Help / Search help...
> or at the "command prompt"
> 
>> winDialogString("hello", "nonsense")
> 
> Note the latter also applies to R.exe inside a cmd window.
> 
> I've checked this with a few windows machines for 2.6.2 & 2.6.1 -
> including with --vanilla.  This machine here has the following...
>> sessionInfo()
> R version 2.6.2 (2008-02-08)
> i386-pc-mingw32
> 
> locale:
>
LC_COLLATE=English_Ireland.1252;LC_CTYPE=English_Ireland.1252;LC_MONETARY=English_Ireland.1252;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=English_Ireland.1252
> 
> attached base packages:
> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
>> version
>                _
> platform       i386-pc-mingw32
> arch           i386
> os             mingw32
> system         i386, mingw32
> status
> major          2
> minor          6.2
> year           2008
> month          02
> day            08
> svn rev        44383
> language       R
> version.string R version 2.6.2 (2008-02-08)
> 
> I am not familiar with the R sources, so the following should be taken
> with a large grain of salt... to my uninitiated eyes it appears to be
> something to do with askstring() in src\extra\graphapp\dialogs.c
> or possibly handle_message_dialog() - I'm afraid I have never
> programmed windows at a low level so I'm not sure what's going on
> here...
> 
> I am of course available to help pin this down - but unfortunately I
> don't have a development environment here.
> 
> Best Regards,
> Sean O'Riordain
> Dublin, Ireland
> not affiliated...
> seanpor A T acm D ot org
> 
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