[R] Plot availability

[Gabor Grothendieck]

On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 2:00 PM, john crepezzi <seejohnrun at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm not so sure the original way I stated my issue was clear enough,
> so I'll attempt to elaborate a little bit.
>
> I'd like to make a function that is passed the name of a plot object,
> and a lines/point specification, and graphs them all on the same plot.
>
> I don't want to redraw the plot each time, and I don't want the code
> to have any concept of a "first entry" instantiating the plot with
> plot() in place of lines().
>
> Ideally, I'd like something to the effect of:
>
> plot <- createPlot(main = "Hello World", sub = "tiny, little world",
> xlim = c(-3, 3), ylim = c(-3, 3))
>
> plot <- addElement(plot, lines(col = 'BLUE', x = c(0, 1, 2, 3), y =
> c(3, 2, 1, 0)))
>
> Hopefully this laid my problem out a little better.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to offer
> -John Crepezzi
>
> On Sep 19, 10:11 am, Duncan Murdoch <murd... at stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
>> On 9/19/2008 9:32 AM, john crepezzi wrote:
>>
>> > Is it possible to see if a plot is already open before I call lines()?
>>
>> I don't think so.  You can see if a graphics device is open by looking
>> at dev.cur(), but I don't think there's a test for plot.new().  I'd just
>> wrap the call in try() if you're not sure it will work.
>>


Using classic graphics try this:

# classic graphics
plot(BOD)
p <- recordPlot()

# some times go by and other plots are made
plot(0)

# now go back to the original plot and add more
replayPlot(p)
points(5, 15, col = "red")


In lattice graphics its like this:

# lattice graphics
library(lattice)
p <- xyplot(demand ~ Time, BOD)

# some times go by and other plots are made
plot(0)

# now replot the original plot and add more
plot(p)
trellis.focus("panel", 1, 1)
panel.points(5, 15, col = "red")
trellis.unfocus()

ggplot2 is also grid-based and should be amenable to
this sort of thing too.