[Rd] Windows freezes plotting large line plots (PR#7856)

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Thu, 12 May 2005 Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk wrote:

> On 12-May-05 ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk wrote:
>> This is already addressed in R-patched: we do ask you to check
>> before filing a bug report so as not to waste our time.
>>  (It was also discussed on R-help: see the archives.)
>>
>> It is a bug *in Windows* and not one in R: nothing an application
>> can do should be that fatal (and this is a perfectly legitimate
>> Windows GDI call).  I trust that you will file a bug report in the
>> correct place.
>>
>>> From the CHANGES file:
>>
>>    The support for mitred lines encountered a Windows problem
>>    with a dramatic slowdown if more than 1000 or so segments
>>    were plotted in a polyline.  We now plot in bunches of 1000,
>>    which is less accurate but  works around the Windows problem.
>
> Clearly a neccessary change, even though it is less accurate.
> But does this change apply only to Windows compilations (i.e.
> conditional compilation), or will we all have to put up with it?

It applies only to the windows() device (including win.metafile etc).

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595