[kepler-dev] small patch for R actor

[Daniel Crawl]

Hi Dan,

Adding the bitmap() function to the beginning of the R script sounds 
like the best solution since it
does not require modifying the actor. If I add bitmap(), would I have to 
explicity set the output
filename or can I still use the one generated by the actor?

Thanks,

  --dan

Dan Higgins wrote:
> Hi Daniel,
>
>    Your suggestion brings up some interesting questions.
>
>    First of all, I had not really looked at the R 'bitmap()' function 
> before. As I understand the documentation, its use requires 
> 'ghostscript' on the executing machine. If so, that means that it 
> would not work on many machines. (I doubt if most of our Windows users 
> have it installed.) (Actually I should try it on Windows to find out!)
>
>    I don't think I agree with adding a 'png without X11' choice for 
> the graphicsFormat because many of our users will have no idea just 
> what X11 is! (On Windows, the png option does not use X11.)
>
>    Can you use the pdf option on your server? That seems a better 
> choice to me because the output can be resized better than bitmaps.
>
>   Also, it should be noted that a user of the RExpression actor can 
> always change the display device inside the script and avoid having to 
> change the actor's Java code; i.e. simply add the bitmap() function to 
> the beginning of the user script to override the default set in the 
> actors parameters.
>
>     So I guess I would rather not increase the complexity of the R 
> actor itself unless we can do it in a way that works across all 
> platforms and does not require additional software installation.
>
>
>
>
> Dan Higgins
> NCEAS
>
>
>
> Daniel Crawl wrote:
>>
>> Hi Dan,
>>
>> Efrat and I are using the R actor in workflows being executed via a 
>> web server.
>> Since X11 is not available, png() doesn't work. Attached is a small 
>> change I made
>> to the R actor to allow png output via bitmap(). It adds a third 
>> choice to the
>> graphicsFormat parameter: "png without X11". Instead maybe it would 
>> be cleaner
>> to make a new boolean parameter useX11?
>>
>> If you want, I'll add the parameter and commit the changes...
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>>  --dan
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Index: RExpression.java
>> ===================================================================
>> RCS file: /cvs/kepler/src/org/ecoinformatics/seek/R/RExpression.java,v
>> retrieving revision 1.47
>> diff -r1.47 RExpression.java
>> 206a207
>>  
>>>         graphicsFormat.addChoice("png without X11");
>>>     
>> 317c318,322
>> <         graphicsOutputFile = getUniqueFileName(graphicsFormatString);
>> ---
>>  
>>>         if(graphicsFormatString.equals("png without X11")) {
>>>             graphicsOutputFile = getUniqueFileName("png");
>>>         } else {
>>>             graphicsOutputFile = 
>>> getUniqueFileName(graphicsFormatString);
>>>         }
>>>     
>> 327c332
>> <       } else {
>> ---
>>  
>>>       } else if (graphicsFormatString.equals("png")) {
>>>     
>> 328a334,335
>>  
>>>       } else if (graphicsFormatString.equals("png without X11")) {
>>>             graphicsDevice = "bitmap(file = '"+ graphicsOutputFile + 
>>> "'"+",width = "+nxd+", height = "+nyd+", pointsize = 12, bg = 
>>> 'white')";