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Iñaki Ucar

2020-Mar-30 09:43 UTC

[Rd] Plotmath on Fedora 31 broken with with pango >= 1.44 - workarounds?

On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 at 04:24, Paul Murrell <paul at stat.auckland.ac.nz>
wrote:>
> Hi
>
> I have created an R branch that contains a potential fix ...
>
> https://svn.r-project.org/R/branches/R-symfam/
>
> This allows, for example, ...
>
> cairo_pdf(symbolfamily="OpenSymbol")
>
> ... to specify that the OpenSymbol family should be used as the
"symbol"
> font (e.g., for "plotmath") in R.
Will this be a default on Linux? Or are you planning any mechanism
(env variable, option...) to make it the default? Because, otherwise,
as pango is updated across distributions, R graphics will be "broken"
by default unless the user explicitly calls the graphics device in
that way to set that option, which I would say is uncommon.

I?aki
> This is just a separate branch for now because, while I have tested it
> under Unbuntu 18.04 and Fedora 31, I cannot even build R for Windows
> (right now) or Mac (ever) and I do not want to drop a bomb on R-devel at
> this stage of the release process for R 4.0.0.
>
> The attached file contains at least an outline of steps required to do a
> minimal test if anyone wants to try the fix on Linux.
>
> cc'ing Simon and Jeroen in case they are able to help with checking
that
> this builds and works on Mac and/or Windows.
>
> NOTEs:
> - 'symbolfamily' can only be specified when a graphics device is
opened,
> and it is then fixed for that device.
> - on Windows, for cairo-based devices, the "symbol" font is still
> hard-coded as "Standard Symbols L"
>
>
> Paul
>
> On 30/03/20 8:15 am, Paul Murrell wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > Thanks for your input on this I?aki and Nicolas.
> >
> > I am starting testing an R fix for this problem today.
> >
> > As suggested, the plan is to allow the R user to specify a font family
> > other than "symbol" for plotmath output (or, more generally,
in R
> > parlance, for 'font=5' or 'fontface=5') on a
Cairo-based graphics device.
> >
> > Paul
> >
> >
> > On 27/03/20 11:30 pm, I?aki Ucar wrote:
> >> On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 at 12:25, Nicolas Mailhot
> >> <nicolas.mailhot at laposte.net> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> <snip>
> >>>
> >>> R brought this all on itself by hardcoding a Windows-only
?Symbol? font
> >>> family name in its default conf. Linux systems are UTF-8 by
default for
> >>> ~20 years now, they don?t need the forcing of magic font
families to
> >>> handle symbols not present in the 8-bit legacy Windows
encodings.
> >>>
> >>> The actual effect of this conf is not the selection of font
files with
> >>> special and unusual symbols. It is to priorize fonts that
match the
> >>> "Symbol" magic name. And those fonts are few and
crumbling on Linux
> >>> systems, because no one has needed to bother with them since
Linux
> >>> switched to UTF-8 last millenium.
> >>>
> >>> Just stop using ?Symbol? in R and things will work a lot
better.
> >>> Alternatively, prepare to maintain the ?Symbol? aliasing stack
in
> >>> fontconfig (and fight with wine for it), because *no* *one*
*else*
> >>> *cares* about this legacy Windows-specific stuff.
> >>
> >> So, in the light of Nicolas' input (thanks!), I think that
font
> >> selection should be fixed upstream in R. I'd be happy to put
all this
> >> together in R's bugzilla, but I don't have an account.
Could someone
> >> please invite me?
> >>
> >> I?aki
> >>
> >> ______________________________________________
> >> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> >>
>
> --
> Dr Paul Murrell
> Department of Statistics
> The University of Auckland
> Private Bag 92019
> Auckland
> New Zealand
> 64 9 3737599 x85392
> paul at stat.auckland.ac.nz
> http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/


-- 
I?aki ?car

On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 at 04:24, Paul Murrell <paul at stat.auckland.ac.nz>
wrote:>
> Hi
>
> I have created an R branch that contains a potential fix ...
>
> https://svn.r-project.org/R/branches/R-symfam/
>
> This allows, for example, ...
>
> cairo_pdf(symbolfamily="OpenSymbol")
>
> ... to specify that the OpenSymbol family should be used as the
"symbol"
> font (e.g., for "plotmath") in R.
>
> This is just a separate branch for now because, while I have tested it
> under Unbuntu 18.04 and Fedora 31, I cannot even build R for Windows
> (right now) or Mac (ever) and I do not want to drop a bomb on R-devel at
> this stage of the release process for R 4.0.0.
>
> The attached file contains at least an outline of steps required to do a
> minimal test if anyone wants to try the fix on Linux.
>
> cc'ing Simon and Jeroen in case they are able to help with checking
that
> this builds and works on Mac and/or Windows.
>
> NOTEs:
> - 'symbolfamily' can only be specified when a graphics device is
opened,
> and it is then fixed for that device.
> - on Windows, for cairo-based devices, the "symbol" font is still
> hard-coded as "Standard Symbols L"
>
> Paul
>
> On 30/03/20 8:15 am, Paul Murrell wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > Thanks for your input on this I?aki and Nicolas.
> >
> > I am starting testing an R fix for this problem today.
> >
> > As suggested, the plan is to allow the R user to specify a font family
> > other than "symbol" for plotmath output (or, more generally,
in R
> > parlance, for 'font=5' or 'fontface=5') on a
Cairo-based graphics device.
> >
> > Paul
> >
> >
> > On 27/03/20 11:30 pm, I?aki Ucar wrote:
> >> On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 at 12:25, Nicolas Mailhot
> >> <nicolas.mailhot at laposte.net> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> <snip>
> >>>
> >>> R brought this all on itself by hardcoding a Windows-only
?Symbol? font
> >>> family name in its default conf. Linux systems are UTF-8 by
default for
> >>> ~20 years now, they don?t need the forcing of magic font
families to
> >>> handle symbols not present in the 8-bit legacy Windows
encodings.
> >>>
> >>> The actual effect of this conf is not the selection of font
files with
> >>> special and unusual symbols. It is to priorize fonts that
match the
> >>> "Symbol" magic name. And those fonts are few and
crumbling on Linux
> >>> systems, because no one has needed to bother with them since
Linux
> >>> switched to UTF-8 last millenium.
> >>>
> >>> Just stop using ?Symbol? in R and things will work a lot
better.
> >>> Alternatively, prepare to maintain the ?Symbol? aliasing stack
in
> >>> fontconfig (and fight with wine for it), because *no* *one*
*else*
> >>> *cares* about this legacy Windows-specific stuff.
> >>
> >> So, in the light of Nicolas' input (thanks!), I think that
font
> >> selection should be fixed upstream in R. I'd be happy to put
all this
> >> together in R's bugzilla, but I don't have an account.
Could someone
> >> please invite me?
> >>
> >> I?aki
> >>
> >> ______________________________________________
> >> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> >>
>
> --
> Dr Paul Murrell
> Department of Statistics
> The University of Auckland
> Private Bag 92019
> Auckland
> New Zealand
> 64 9 3737599 x85392
> paul at stat.auckland.ac.nz
> http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/


-- 
I?aki ?car

Paul Murrell

2020-Mar-30 20:41 UTC

head link

[Rd] Plotmath on Fedora 31 broken with with pango >= 1.44 - workarounds?

Hi

On 30/03/20 10:43 pm, I?aki Ucar wrote:> On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 at 04:24, Paul Murrell <paul at
stat.auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> I have created an R branch that contains a potential fix ...
>>
>> https://svn.r-project.org/R/branches/R-symfam/
>>
>> This allows, for example, ...
>>
>> cairo_pdf(symbolfamily="OpenSymbol")
>>
>> ... to specify that the OpenSymbol family should be used as the
"symbol"
>> font (e.g., for "plotmath") in R.
> 
> Will this be a default on Linux? Or are you planning any mechanism
> (env variable, option...) to make it the default? Because, otherwise,
> as pango is updated across distributions, R graphics will be
"broken"
> by default unless the user explicitly calls the graphics device in
> that way to set that option, which I would say is uncommon.
Good question.  Currently, for x11() (and png() etc) the default is 
taken from X11.options().  So it is possible to set this default for a 
session, or even for an installation via one of the ?Startup mechanisms 
(e.g., an R_HOME/etc/Rprofile.site file).

For svg(), cairo_pdf(), and cairo_ps(), the default is hard-coded in the 
function arguments, but I *think* they are used less as default graphics 
devices.

Another option would be to try to detect Fedora and set the default 
X11.options() differently there.  Two problems:  I am not sure there is 
a reliable R code chunk for detecting Fedora (sessionInfo()$running?) 
let alone Fedora >= 30;   what to set the default to?  (just has to be a 
font with a good Unicode coverage that is pretty much guaranteed to be 
in a default Fedora install).

Paul
> I?aki
> 
>> This is just a separate branch for now because, while I have tested it
>> under Unbuntu 18.04 and Fedora 31, I cannot even build R for Windows
>> (right now) or Mac (ever) and I do not want to drop a bomb on R-devel
at
>> this stage of the release process for R 4.0.0.
>>
>> The attached file contains at least an outline of steps required to do
a
>> minimal test if anyone wants to try the fix on Linux.
>>
>> cc'ing Simon and Jeroen in case they are able to help with checking
that
>> this builds and works on Mac and/or Windows.
>>
>> NOTEs:
>> - 'symbolfamily' can only be specified when a graphics device
is opened,
>> and it is then fixed for that device.
>> - on Windows, for cairo-based devices, the "symbol" font is
still
>> hard-coded as "Standard Symbols L"
>>
>>
>> Paul
>>
>> On 30/03/20 8:15 am, Paul Murrell wrote:
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> Thanks for your input on this I?aki and Nicolas.
>>>
>>> I am starting testing an R fix for this problem today.
>>>
>>> As suggested, the plan is to allow the R user to specify a font
family
>>> other than "symbol" for plotmath output (or, more
generally, in R
>>> parlance, for 'font=5' or 'fontface=5') on a
Cairo-based graphics device.
>>>
>>> Paul
>>>
>>>
>>> On 27/03/20 11:30 pm, I?aki Ucar wrote:
>>>> On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 at 12:25, Nicolas Mailhot
>>>> <nicolas.mailhot at laposte.net> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> <snip>
>>>>>
>>>>> R brought this all on itself by hardcoding a Windows-only
?Symbol? font
>>>>> family name in its default conf. Linux systems are UTF-8 by
default for
>>>>> ~20 years now, they don?t need the forcing of magic font
families to
>>>>> handle symbols not present in the 8-bit legacy Windows
encodings.
>>>>>
>>>>> The actual effect of this conf is not the selection of font
files with
>>>>> special and unusual symbols. It is to priorize fonts that
match the
>>>>> "Symbol" magic name. And those fonts are few and
crumbling on Linux
>>>>> systems, because no one has needed to bother with them
since Linux
>>>>> switched to UTF-8 last millenium.
>>>>>
>>>>> Just stop using ?Symbol? in R and things will work a lot
better.
>>>>> Alternatively, prepare to maintain the ?Symbol? aliasing
stack in
>>>>> fontconfig (and fight with wine for it), because *no* *one*
*else*
>>>>> *cares* about this legacy Windows-specific stuff.
>>>>
>>>> So, in the light of Nicolas' input (thanks!), I think that
font
>>>> selection should be fixed upstream in R. I'd be happy to
put all this
>>>> together in R's bugzilla, but I don't have an account.
Could someone
>>>> please invite me?
>>>>
>>>> I?aki
>>>>
>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>>>>
>>
>> --
>> Dr Paul Murrell
>> Department of Statistics
>> The University of Auckland
>> Private Bag 92019
>> Auckland
>> New Zealand
>> 64 9 3737599 x85392
>> paul at stat.auckland.ac.nz
>> http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/
> 
> 
> 
-- 
Dr Paul Murrell
Department of Statistics
The University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland
New Zealand
64 9 3737599 x85392
paul at stat.auckland.ac.nz
http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/

Iñaki Ucar

2020-Mar-30 21:12 UTC

head link

[Rd] Plotmath on Fedora 31 broken with with pango >= 1.44 - workarounds?

On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 at 22:41, Paul Murrell <paul at stat.auckland.ac.nz>
wrote:>
> Hi
>
> On 30/03/20 10:43 pm, I?aki Ucar wrote:
> > On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 at 04:24, Paul Murrell <paul at
stat.auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi
> >>
> >> I have created an R branch that contains a potential fix ...
> >>
> >> https://svn.r-project.org/R/branches/R-symfam/
> >>
> >> This allows, for example, ...
> >>
> >> cairo_pdf(symbolfamily="OpenSymbol")
> >>
> >> ... to specify that the OpenSymbol family should be used as the
"symbol"
> >> font (e.g., for "plotmath") in R.
> >
> > Will this be a default on Linux? Or are you planning any mechanism
> > (env variable, option...) to make it the default? Because, otherwise,
> > as pango is updated across distributions, R graphics will be
"broken"
> > by default unless the user explicitly calls the graphics device in
> > that way to set that option, which I would say is uncommon.
>
> Good question.  Currently, for x11() (and png() etc) the default is
> taken from X11.options().  So it is possible to set this default for a
> session, or even for an installation via one of the ?Startup mechanisms
> (e.g., an R_HOME/etc/Rprofile.site file).
>
> For svg(), cairo_pdf(), and cairo_ps(), the default is hard-coded in the
> function arguments, but I *think* they are used less as default graphics
> devices.
>
> Another option would be to try to detect Fedora and set the default
> X11.options() differently there.  Two problems:  I am not sure there is
> a reliable R code chunk for detecting Fedora (sessionInfo()$running?)
> let alone Fedora >= 30;   what to set the default to?  (just has to be a
> font with a good Unicode coverage that is pretty much guaranteed to be
> in a default Fedora install).
As per Nicolas' comment (I failed to include him in CC in my last
email, and he's not in this list, sorry for that) any font installed
by default would have good symbol coverage, so there's really no need
to set a different font for symbols. According again to Nicolas (he's
one of the font experts in Fedora), the "sans-serif" or
"monospace"
fontconfig defaults would work out of the box, and if a symbol is not
available, fontconfig should fallback gracefully to another font.

So maybe instead of a new "symbolfamily" argument, maybe it's
better
to just use the "family" for all characters, including symbols, on
Linux, and fontconfig should take care of everything (if I understood
correctly your explanation, Nicolas; please correct me if I'm wrong).

-- 
I?aki ?car

Martin Maechler

2020-Mar-31 19:24 UTC

head link

[Rd] Plotmath on Fedora 31 broken with with pango >= 1.44 - workarounds?

>>>>> Paul Murrell 
>>>>>     on Tue, 31 Mar 2020 09:41:30 +1300 writes:
    > Hi
    > On 30/03/20 10:43 pm, I?aki Ucar wrote:
    >> On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 at 04:24, Paul Murrell <paul at
stat.auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
    >>> 
    >>> Hi
    >>> 
    >>> I have created an R branch that contains a potential fix ...
    >>> 
    >>> https://svn.r-project.org/R/branches/R-symfam/
    >>> 
    >>> This allows, for example, ...
    >>> 
    >>> cairo_pdf(symbolfamily="OpenSymbol")
    >>> 
    >>> ... to specify that the OpenSymbol family should be used as the
"symbol"
    >>> font (e.g., for "plotmath") in R.
    >> 
    >> Will this be a default on Linux? Or are you planning any mechanism
    >> (env variable, option...) to make it the default? Because,
otherwise,
    >> as pango is updated across distributions, R graphics will be
"broken"
    >> by default unless the user explicitly calls the graphics device in
    >> that way to set that option, which I would say is uncommon.

    > Good question.  Currently, for x11() (and png() etc) the default is 
    > taken from X11.options().  So it is possible to set this default for a 
    > session, or even for an installation via one of the ?Startup mechanisms
    > (e.g., an R_HOME/etc/Rprofile.site file).

    > For svg(), cairo_pdf(), and cairo_ps(), the default is hard-coded in
the
    > function arguments, but I *think* they are used less as default
graphics
    > devices.

    > Another option would be to try to detect Fedora and set the default 
    > X11.options() differently there.  Two problems:  I am not sure there is
    > a reliable R code chunk for detecting Fedora (sessionInfo()$running?) 
    > let alone Fedora >= 30;   

Yes,  sessionInfo()$running  is sufficient for both  *and*
there's a faster way in latest R versions, as I had the same
need and found sessionInfo() should be modularized here, and so
we have the  'osVersion'  variable since  R 3.6.0

----------------------------------------> osVersion
[1] "Fedora 30 (Thirty)"> find("osVersion")
[1] "package:utils"> ----------------------------------------

{it is put into utils at package load time}

    > what to set the default to?  (just has to be a 
    > font with a good Unicode coverage that is pretty much guaranteed to be 
    > in a default Fedora install).

    > Paul

    >> I?aki
    >> 
    >>> This is just a separate branch for now because, while I have
tested it
    >>> under Unbuntu 18.04 and Fedora 31, I cannot even build R for
Windows
    >>> (right now) or Mac (ever) and I do not want to drop a bomb on
R-devel at
    >>> this stage of the release process for R 4.0.0.
    >>> 
    >>> The attached file contains at least an outline of steps
required to do a
    >>> minimal test if anyone wants to try the fix on Linux.
    >>> 
    >>> cc'ing Simon and Jeroen in case they are able to help with
checking that
    >>> this builds and works on Mac and/or Windows.
    >>> 
    >>> NOTEs:
    >>> - 'symbolfamily' can only be specified when a graphics
device is opened,
    >>> and it is then fixed for that device.
    >>> - on Windows, for cairo-based devices, the "symbol"
font is still
    >>> hard-coded as "Standard Symbols L"
    >>> 
    >>> 
    >>> Paul
    >>> 
    >>> On 30/03/20 8:15 am, Paul Murrell wrote:
    >>>> Hi
    >>>> 
    >>>> Thanks for your input on this I?aki and Nicolas.
    >>>> 
    >>>> I am starting testing an R fix for this problem today.
    >>>> 
    >>>> As suggested, the plan is to allow the R user to specify a
font family
    >>>> other than "symbol" for plotmath output (or, more
generally, in R
    >>>> parlance, for 'font=5' or 'fontface=5') on
a Cairo-based graphics device.
    >>>> 
    >>>> Paul
    >>>> 
    >>>> 
    >>>> On 27/03/20 11:30 pm, I?aki Ucar wrote:
    >>>>> On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 at 12:25, Nicolas Mailhot
    >>>>> <nicolas.mailhot at laposte.net> wrote:
    >>>>>> >>>>> <snip>
    >>>>>> >>>>> R brought this all on itself by hardcoding a Windows-only
?Symbol? font
>>>>> family name in its default conf. Linux systems are UTF-8 by
default for
>>>>> ~20 years now, they don?t need the forcing of magic font
families to
>>>>> handle symbols not present in the 8-bit legacy Windows
encodings.
    >>>>>> >>>>> The actual effect of this conf is not the selection of font
files with
>>>>> special and unusual symbols. It is to priorize fonts that
match the
>>>>> "Symbol" magic name. And those fonts are few and
crumbling on Linux
>>>>> systems, because no one has needed to bother with them
since Linux
>>>>> switched to UTF-8 last millenium.
    >>>>>> >>>>> Just stop using ?Symbol? in R and things will work a lot
better.
>>>>> Alternatively, prepare to maintain the ?Symbol? aliasing
stack in
>>>>> fontconfig (and fight with wine for it), because *no* *one*
*else*
>>>>> *cares* about this legacy Windows-specific stuff.    >>>>> 
    >>>>> So, in the light of Nicolas' input (thanks!), I
think that font
    >>>>> selection should be fixed upstream in R. I'd be
happy to put all this
    >>>>> together in R's bugzilla, but I don't have an
account. Could someone
    >>>>> please invite me?
    >>>>> 
    >>>>> I?aki
    >>>>> 
    >>>>> ______________________________________________
    >>>>> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
    >>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
    >>>>> 
    >>> 
    >>> --
    >>> Dr Paul Murrell
    >>> Department of Statistics
    >>> The University of Auckland
    >>> Private Bag 92019
    >>> Auckland
    >>> New Zealand
    >>> 64 9 3737599 x85392
    >>> paul at stat.auckland.ac.nz
    >>> http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/
    >> 
    >> 
    >> 

    > -- 
    > Dr Paul Murrell
    > Department of Statistics
    > The University of Auckland
    > Private Bag 92019
    > Auckland
    > New Zealand
    > 64 9 3737599 x85392
    > paul at stat.auckland.ac.nz
    > http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/

    > ______________________________________________
    > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
    > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel

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