[R] latex{Hmisc} cannot find xdvi on MAC OS X

[Kevin E. Thorpe]

Don MacQueen wrote:
> Nobody seems to have asked whether the student is using R from the Mac
> GUI, or R at the unix-style command line prompt.
> 
> I have R 2.6.1 installed on a Mac running OS 10.4.11.  When I start R at
> the command prompt in a terminal emulator in the X windows environment,
> the example expression, latex(describe(dataframe)), succeeds. xdvi
> starts up and displays the preview.
> 
> When I use the Mac GUI, xdvi does not start up. Both ways of starting R
> are using the same installation of R.
> 
> When started by double-clicking on the icon that represents R, the unix
> path is not inherited. It's probably more accurate to say that PATH
> does  not exist, because no unix shell has been started. There are other
> mechanisms for creating environment variables that R can obtain via
> Sys.getenv(). (Create a file named environment.plist, or something like
> that, but I don't remember the exact details.)
> 
> Even if the R gui environment is set up so that the path to xdvi is
> available, it won't necessarily work, because xdvi requires that an X
> windows server and window manager be running. That's not normally the
> case for most Mac users (one assumes). On Mac OS 10.5.x those should
> start automatically when xdvi is started, but not on earlier versions of
> Mac OS.
> 
> (As an aside, this is probably the answer to Frank's comment, "shame on
> Mac" (for not inheriting path) -- if one wants the Mac to act like a
> linux box, then one must do one's work from within a unix shell. That's
> done either from the Terminal application, or other terminal emulator.)
> 
> The experts on this issue are best reached through R-sig-mac. A search
> of the archives will probably reveal how to define unix stye environment
> variables such as PATH, that the Mac R gui can use. The Mac-related
> pages at CRAN may also have this information.
> 
> -Don

Thanks for this additional info.  She is running from the MAC GUI.
The fixed Sys.setenv() now fixes the xdvi not found, but throws this
error.

dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/X11R6/lib/libXaw.7.dylib
   Referenced from: /usr/texbin/xdvi-xaw.bin
   Reason: image not found
2008-01-24 17:11:08.253 R[1370] tossing reply message sequence 3 on
thread 0x3d31450

This certainly looks to me like the X libs are not loaded.

Am I remembering correctly that there is a Start X menu item in the
MAC GUI for R or elsewhere?

BTW, I requested her sessionInfo().  Here it is.

> sessionInfo()
R version 2.6.1 (2007-11-26)
powerpc-apple-darwin8.10.1

locale:
en_CA.UTF-8/en_CA.UTF-8/en_CA.UTF-8/C/en_CA.UTF-8/en_CA.UTF-8

attached base packages:
[1] splines   stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods
[8] base

other attached packages:

[1] Design_2.1-1   survival_2.34  Hmisc_3.4-3    lattice_0.17-2

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] cluster_1.11.9 grid_2.6.1

So the MAC OS is 8.10.1?  Earlier than the 8.10.5 you mention above.

Thanks,

Kevin


> At 9:22 AM -0500 1/23/08, Kevin E. Thorpe wrote:
>> Hello.
>>
>> I am posting this on behalf of a student in my class.  I have been
>> introducing them to R.
>>
>> I suspect that the problem I need help with is not so much an R
>> issue, but a MAC config issue, but I don't have enough MAC
>> experience to know what to do.
>>
>> Anyway, on to the problem.  We are using Frank Harrell's Hmisc
>> and Design packages.  This student also wishes to use the latex
>> formatting facilities provided in those packages so she has installed
>> LaTeX.
>>
>> When she does something like latex(describe(dataframe)), the latex
>> file is produced, the dvi file is successfully written but then
>> the error "sh: line 1: xdvi: command not found" appears.
>>
>> I started a terminal and a "which xdvi" returned the path
>> where it found xdvi.  So, it appears that xdvi is in the
>> PATH.
>>
>> My apologies, I forgot to get her sessionInfo() but I think
>> she is running R 2.6.?


-- 
Kevin E. Thorpe
Biostatistician/Trialist, Knowledge Translation Program
Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
email: kevin.thorpe at utoronto.ca  Tel: 416.864.5776  Fax: 416.864.6057