[R] graphics history

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Mon, 21 Apr 2008, Duncan Murdoch wrote:

> On 21/04/2008 4:59 AM, Norbert NEUWIRTH wrote:
>> dear useRs and developeRs,
>>
>> I am afraid it is a very basic question, but I did not find anything alike in the literature.
>>
>> The R standard graphics device shows the opportunity to activate the 
>> history of plots drawn within the current session. Th user can scroll 
>> back and see the last graphs (or same graph with some changes in 
>> parameters). I did not find out yet how to activate the history by 
>> code.  Any ideas?
>
> When you open the window, use windows(record=TRUE).
>
> If you want this to happen by default, write your own wrapper for the
> windows() graphics device:
>
>  windows <- function(..., record=TRUE)
>     grDevices::windows(..., record=record)

Or in 2.7.0, windows.options(record=TRUE) sets this for the session.
You can set this in a .Rprofile file by (untested, I am not on Windows)

setHook(packageEvent("grDevices", "onLoad"),
         function(...) grDevices::windows.options(record=TRUE)
         )

> One thing I'd like to do, but didn't have time to implement before
> 2.7.0, is to have history set to some finite size, e.g. a default might
> be the last 3 or 10 plots.  The problem with record=TRUE is that it
> keeps a record of all the plots, so memory use just increases and increases.

Why not just startup another device with record=FALSE?

>
> Duncan Murdoch
>
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-- 
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)
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