R help - Aug 2008 - Are there any guis out there, which will allow editing of the graph?

Hi, all,

	I would like to know if there is any gui interface out there  
(academic or commercial) that allows one to edit R-language generated  
graphs (e.g positioning x axis labels.)  It would be nice to have  
something like the user interface of Igor or Origin.  I have already  
used JGR and R-gui.  These are good, but they don't allow one to  
easily edit graphs.  I have also tried locator() and the package  
iplots.  Your input is greatly appreciated.

Best wishes,
Art Roberts
University of Washington

No. Can't be. Editable graphs require that the graph be produced via code
that produces changeable components. All R graphs are essentially static.

That said, caveats: graphs drawn via the grid package functionality -- for
example lattice graphs -- **are** produced via changeable code. If you read
the lattice docs carefully, you'll see that there are a few features there
that allow some graph editing. There may be other packages that also have
some editing capabilties. R's base graphics also allow a little interaction
via identify() and locator(), which can be useful (e.g. for positioning
legends).

One can also "simulate" interactivity by recording various components
of
graph construction and then modifying and redrawing them. But this is just
manually doing what you're looking for, so probably a dumb suggestion.

While graph editing certainly can be a nice feature, it is very difficult to
implement without severely constraining graphing flexibility (IMO, of
course). Graphs are very complex beasties, so it's hard to write clean code
that allows flexibile editing capabilities. Look at S-Plus's graph editing,
which I always found harder to use (and more buggy) than just issuing the
commands. (To be fair, it's been some years since I tried).

Again, just my 2 bits. Others may well disagree (and perhaps point you to
what you seek).

Cheers,
Bert

-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org]
On
Behalf Of Arthur Roberts
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 9:51 AM
To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: [R] Are there any guis out there,which will allow editing of the
graph?

Hi, all,

	I would like to know if there is any gui interface out there  
(academic or commercial) that allows one to edit R-language generated  
graphs (e.g positioning x axis labels.)  It would be nice to have  
something like the user interface of Igor or Origin.  I have already  
used JGR and R-gui.  These are good, but they don't allow one to  
easily edit graphs.  I have also tried locator() and the package  
iplots.  Your input is greatly appreciated.

Best wishes,
Art Roberts
University of Washington

______________________________________________
R-help at r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

On 04/08/2008 12:50 PM, Arthur Roberts wrote:
> Hi, all,
> 
> 	I would like to know if there is any gui interface out there  
> (academic or commercial) that allows one to edit R-language generated  
> graphs (e.g positioning x axis labels.)  It would be nice to have  
> something like the user interface of Igor or Origin.  I have already  
> used JGR and R-gui.  These are good, but they don't allow one to  
> easily edit graphs.  I have also tried locator() and the package  
> iplots.  Your input is greatly appreciated.
I imagine there are a number of commercial packages available that would 
allow you to edit PDF or PS files, but I haven't used any of them, so I 
can't recommend one.

Duncan Murdoch

Microsoft Word's graphics editor can edit R graphics saved in
metafile format, wmf.  That includes x axis labels, etc.

On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 12:50 PM, Arthur Roberts <aroberts99163 at
yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi, all,
>
>        I would like to know if there is any gui interface out there
> (academic or commercial) that allows one to edit R-language generated
graphs
> (e.g positioning x axis labels.)  It would be nice to have something like
> the user interface of Igor or Origin.  I have already used JGR and R-gui.
>  These are good, but they don't allow one to easily edit graphs.  I
have
> also tried locator() and the package iplots.  Your input is greatly
> appreciated.
>
> Best wishes,
> Art Roberts
> University of Washington
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

Hi


Arthur Roberts wrote:
> Hi, all,
> 
> 	I would like to know if there is any gui interface out there  
> (academic or commercial) that allows one to edit R-language generated  
> graphs (e.g positioning x axis labels.)  It would be nice to have  
> something like the user interface of Igor or Origin.  I have already  
> used JGR and R-gui.  These are good, but they don't allow one to  
> easily edit graphs.  I have also tried locator() and the package  
> iplots.  Your input is greatly appreciated.

I don't think anyone has mentioned the 'RGrace' package yet ...

http://post.hppi.troitsk.ru/~mike/R/rgrace.htm
http://post.hppi.troitsk.ru/~mike/R/RGorace.html

... or the 'playwith' package ...

http://playwith.googlecode.com/

Paul

> Best wishes,
> Art Roberts
> University of Washington
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
-- 
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/

Just to add a couple more thougths to this thread.  If you go the xfig driver
route, there are also the programs jfig and winfig that edit fig files and may
be easier to install on some platforms (winfig may require a payment to get full
use, but I believe jfig is free).

But you may want to think through the idea of editing the graphs rather than
finding the commands to make R give you what you want.  I find that whenever I
think I am doing a one-off plot/analysis and just do gui editing rather than
writing a rerunnable script, more often then not I end up needing to rerun the
code and need to remember how I edited the things by hand and end up wishing
that I created a rerunnable script in the first place.

There are ways in R to use some form of gui to find values that look good, then
put those into the commands to get the plot that you want.  For one example look
at the dynIdentify or TkIdentify functions in the TeachingDemos package.

You could also use code like:

library(TeachingDemos)
tmpfun <- function(line, adj){
        plot(1:10, xlab='')
        title(xlab='My x-Label', line=line, adj=adj)
}
tkexamp( tmpfun, list(line=list('slider',from=0, to=5, resolution=.1,
init=3),
        adj=list('slider', from=0, to=1, resolution=0.05, init=0.5)))

To find good values for placing an x-label, then run the function to create the
plot with your positionioning in the graphics device of choice.

Hope this helps,

--
Gregory (Greg) L. Snow Ph.D.
Statistical Data Center
Intermountain Healthcare
greg.snow at imail.org
(801) 408-8111


> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Arthur Roberts
> Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 10:51 AM
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: [R] Are there any guis out there, which will allow
> editing of the graph?
>
> Hi, all,
>
>         I would like to know if there is any gui interface
> out there (academic or commercial) that allows one to edit
> R-language generated graphs (e.g positioning x axis labels.)
> It would be nice to have something like the user interface of
> Igor or Origin.  I have already used JGR and R-gui.  These
> are good, but they don't allow one to easily edit graphs.  I
> have also tried locator() and the package iplots.  Your input
> is greatly appreciated.
>
> Best wishes,
> Art Roberts
> University of Washington
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>