[R] graphic problem: transparent window when starting mtrace() from package debug

[Mark.Bravington at csiro.au]

Hi Jannis

[I'm the author of package debug... I know this is 6 months after your query, sorry-- but I don't subscribe to R-help, and you didn't post to the maintainer! I'm primarily sending this to close off the thread.]

> when I use the package debug, mark a function with mtrace() and enter 
> into the browser like mechanism of debug a window displaying the code of 
> the marked function with the current line highlighted usually appears. 
> When I use GUIs other than ess or the standard R console sometimes this 
> window is totally transparent so it is not possible to see any code in 
> it. After closing/resizing the window this error sometimes dissapears 
> but I could not find any systematic behaviour here. The problem occours 
> when I use Eclipse/Statet or Notepad++ as a GUI.

> Does anybody have any ideas about the possible cause of the problem?

This is a long-standing and sporadic problem originating somewhere in the tcltk package, and is covered in the 'debug' documentation. For how to resolve it, look at

package?debug

and specifically the "Display bugs" section. For an automatic fix, try

options( shakeup.debug.windows=TRUE)

as a starting point. There are other more desperate measures if that doesn't work.

HTH
Mark

Mark Bravington
CSIRO CMIS
Marine Lab
Hobart
Australia