[R] Unintended behaviour (possibly bugs)

[Rui Barradas]

Hello,

Yes, this is definitely a bug.
Even the matrix plot is puzzling, with a "1" as top row sort-of-label 
but no grid line. I'm trying to follow the source code of dotchart but 
am yet to understand exactly what it does to decide the margins settings.

     if (!(is.null(labels) && is.null(glabels))) {
       nmai <- par("mai")
       nmai[2L] <- nmai[4L] + max(linch + goffset, ginch) +
         0.1
       par(mai = nmai)
     }

This should be moved to r-devel?

Rui Barradas

Às 03:33 de 17/02/20, Alexey Shipunov escreveu:
> John and Rui, thanks!
> 
> However, if we use the proper object, the problem still persists:
> 
> dotchart(c("3"=1, "2"=2, "1"=3), ylab="Ylab") # ylab is invisible
> dotchart(c("aa"=1, "b"=2, "cc"=3), ylab="Ylab") # ylab is partly visible (!!!)
> dotchart(c("aaa"=1, "bbb"=2, "ccc"=3), ylab="Ylab") # ylab is well visible
> 
> If the object is matrix, ylab is visible:
> 
> dotchart(matrix(1:3, dimnames=list(c("aa","bb","cc"), NULL)), ylab="Ylab")
> 
> But the ?dotchart explicitly says that "x: either a vector or matrix
> of numeric values" and then "labels: a vector of labels for each
> point.  For vectors the default is to use ‘names(x)’ ...".
> 
> So this is likely a bug. Do you agree?
> 
> Alexey
> 
> пн, 17 февр. 2020 г. в 01:55, Rui Barradas <ruipbarradas using sapo.pt>:
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I believe you are wrong, the error is not in dotchart, it's in your
>> code. You assume that to plot an object of class "table" is the same as
>> to plot an object of class "numeric".
>>
>> Inline.
>>
>> Às 12:21 de 16/02/20, Alexey Shipunov escreveu:
>>> Dear list,
>>>
>>> I have been advised to share these with R-help instead of filling the
>>> bug report:
>>>
>>> 1) dotchart() does not allow to see the left axis title ('ylab') and
>>> cannot change the left margin (outer margin 2) of the plot
>>>
>>> The code:
>>>
>>> aa <- table(c(1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3))
>>> dotchart(aa, ylab="Ylab") # does not show 'ylab'
>>
>> You are right, it does *not* show 'ylab' but the user is warned.
>>
>>
>> aa <- table(c(1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3))
>> dotchart(aa, ylab = "Ylab") # does show 'ylab'
>> #Warning message:
>> #In dotchart(aa, ylab = "Ylab") :
>> #  'x' is neither a vector nor a matrix: using as.numeric(x)
>>
>>
>> My code:
>>
>>
>> (mar <- par("mar"))    # new R session
>> #[1] 5.1 4.1 4.1 2.1   # the left margin is 4.1
>>
>> aa <- as.numeric(table(c(1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3)))
>>
>> dotchart(aa, ylab = "Ylab") # It does show 'ylab'
>> old.par <- par(mar = mar + c(0, 5, 0, 0))
>> par("mar")
>> #[1] 5.1 9.1 4.1 2.1
>>
>> dotchart(aa, ylab = "Ylab")  # The left margin is now 9.1, much bigger
>>
>> par(old.par)                 # It does change the left margin
>> dotchart(aa, ylab = "Ylab")  #  but only when a new graph is plotted.
>>
>>
>>
>>> old.par <- par(mar=c(1, 10, 1, 1)) ; dotchart(aa, ylab="Ylab") ;
>>> par(old.par) # does not change left margin
>>>
>>> Possible solution:
>>>
>>> I researched the problem and think that the dotchart() code will need
>>> few corrections. If there is an interest, I can post it here; or you
>>> can look at the code of shipunov::Dotchart1() function.
>>>
>>> 2) example(hist) includes two "wrong" and "extreme" examples which
>>> slow down and even crash R on some systems; this make it unsuitable
>>> for demonstration in the class and strikes beginners in R who just
>>> want to understand how hist() works. Actually, I did it last week (I
>>> was not aware of these examples), and in the class two computers hang,
>>> and many others were extremely slow.
>>>
>>> The code:
>>>
>>> example(hist)
>>>
>>> Possible solution:
>>>
>>> If R maintainers will enclose parts of "hist" example in \dontrun{},
>>> this will allow to see the code but in the same time will not strike
>>> beginners in R who just
>>> want to understand how hist() works. They will still be possible to
>>> run with example(..., run.dontrun=TRUE).
>>
>> Agree, it's annoying. Sometimes there's a Warning section after the
>> Details section. Maybe such a section could get users' attention to
>> those examples? At least it wouldn't hurt...
>>
>>
>> Hope this helps,
>>
>> Rui Barradas
>>
>>>
>>> With best wishes,
>>>
>>> Alexey Shipunov
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
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>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>