R help - Feb 2019 - Spacing around \cdot (%.%) unequal in pdf

I am struggling labeling an axis in a plot.

Here is a minimal example illustrating the point:


pdf("mve.pdf",width=5,height=5)
ypos <- c(1:3) * 1e6
ylabs <- sapply(ypos/1e6, function(i) as.expression(bquote(.(i)%.%10^6)))
plot(rep(1,3), ypos, yaxt="n", ylab="")
axis(2, at=ypos, labels=ylabs, las=1)
dev.off()


First, I find the space left and right of the \cdot operator rather 
larger. Is there a way to decrease it?

Second, and more important, in the generated PDF, the space left of the 
dot is much bigger, it looks as if it was typeset as e.g. "3 *10^6".

Thanks for any hint

Pascal

>>>>> Pascal A Niklaus 
>>>>>     on Wed, 6 Feb 2019 19:48:49 +0100 writes:
    > I am struggling labeling an axis in a plot.
    > Here is a minimal example illustrating the point:


    > pdf("mve.pdf",width=5,height=5)
    > ypos <- c(1:3) * 1e6
    > ylabs <- sapply(ypos/1e6, function(i)
as.expression(bquote(.(i)%.%10^6)))
    > plot(rep(1,3), ypos, yaxt="n", ylab="")
    > axis(2, at=ypos, labels=ylabs, las=1)
    > dev.off()


    > First, I find the space left and right of the \cdot operator rather 
    > larger. Is there a way to decrease it?

    > Second, and more important, in the generated PDF, the space left of the
    > dot is much bigger, it looks as if it was typeset as e.g. "3
*10^6".

Vaguely related:   I have advertized my  eaxis()  and
pretty10exp() functions in package 'sfsmisc' for doing what you do above
more
generally and automatically:

if(!require("sfsmisc")) {
  install.packages("sfsmisc") ; library("sfsmisc")
}	

ypos <- c(1:3) * 1e6
plot(rep(1,3), ypos, yaxt="n", ylab="")
## e.g.,
eaxis(2, at = ypos, labels = pretty10exp(ypos, drop.1=TRUE))

gives a nice plot for me, not using 'cdot' but rather

  > pretty10exp(ypos, drop.1=TRUE)
  expression(10^6, 2 %*% 10^6, 3 %*% 10^6)
  > 

    > Thanks for any hint
    > Pascal

You are welcome!

Martin Maechler
ETH Zurich and R Core Team