[RkWard-devel] R console not typeable

[Prasenjit Kapat]

> Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 13:02:55 +0100
> From: Thomas Friedrichsmeier
> 	<thomas.friedrichsmeier at ruhr-uni-bochum.de>
> Subject: Re: [RkWard-devel] R console not typeable
> To: rkward-devel at lists.sourceforge.net
> Message-ID:
> 	<200701121302.55695.thomas.friedrichsmeier at ruhr-uni-bochum.de>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> On Friday 12 January 2007 08:59, Prasenjit Kapat wrote:
> > I have been using rkward for a while now. I have a Debian/unstable box so
> > I just apt-get install rkward. That is I am using 0.4.2-2 version. The
> > problem is that in the "R Console" tab of rkward, I can not type
> > anything. It seems that the keyboard inputs are just ignored. But I can
> > copy and paste from any file
> > ( or anywhere else, like clipboard) into the "R Console" tab and it gives
> > desired outputs.
>
> Hmm, haven't heard about this issue before, and can not reproduce it. My
> best guess at this point is that it might be a problem with focus handling.
> We do have some issues with that, though not as severe as you are
> reporting. Some questions, maybe some of this helps to track down the
> issue:
>
> 1) Try clicking inside the console window several times. Does that help
> any? 

No, it doesn't. Just the cursor line get selected and unselected.

> 2) Does the cursor in the console blink, or is it static / invisible? 

It is visible and blinks, when in focus and static when not in focus. The 
blinking cursor is right next to the prompt with no space in between. What I 
am saying is that the prompt in "R Console" looks like ">|" (the bar 
representing the cursor) instead of the usual "> |" (without quotes of 
course). Don't know if that is useful, but seemed a little weired bcoz every 
prompt has a customary "space" after the prompt.

> 3) Can you see the "Interrupt running command" action in the toolbar / in
> the "Run" menu? (enabled or disabled does not matter, but it should be
> visible)

Yes, I can see "Interrupt running command Ctrl+C" both in the "Run" menu and 
on right clicking inside the "R Console". In both the places it is disabled 
(obviously no running command!).

> 4) When you say you can paste in the console, is that using Edit->Paste
> from the menu, or by pressing Ctrl+V (or both)?

Ctrl+V works inside the "R Console". So I guess the input is not totally dead. 
Also, "Paste Ctrl+V" works from the action menu (right clicking). But when I 
am in the "R Console" (ie it is in focus), the "Edit" and "View" options from 
the main menubar goes off, as is expected, I guess (similar to when 
either "Command log" or "Pending jobs" or "Help search" is in focus).

> 5) When did you first notice the problem? Directly after upgrading to
> 0.4.2-2? If so, what version did you have installed before that? If not, do
> you have an idea, what other package upgrade might have caused the
> breakage? 

This is where I don't have any concrete answer. I had observed it around two 
months back. Somehow I procrastinated my botheration for this issue because I 
mostly work by writing scripts and then either running the whole file or a 
selection. 

So I am not sure whether this issue is only after upgrading to 0.4.2-2. As for 
other packages causing the breakage, I have no idea :( rkward is the only 
package (of all the input/edit related packages that I USE) that has this 
keyboard input problem. Sorry, my minimal experience does not help me here. 
If you have any particular package(s) in mind that needs to be investigated, 
I can try downgrading them!

> 6) Any other ideas what might be somewhat "special" about your 
> system?

I don't think there is any "special" config for my system. 

As for the OS, I use a combination of testing and unstable versions of debian 
from their official repository. As a consequence, some packages like 
gcc/python has quite a few versions installed. If "apt-get upgrade" doesn't 
remove/replace any older version of any package I do not manually "apt-get 
remove" it. Apart from this I also have 
    deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org sid main
in my sources.lst file. Though I guess, this should not matter in rkward 
related packages.

As for hardware, I use a wired (ordinary 104 keys) keyboard and mouse with a 
KVM switch to connect to my Linux and WinXP boxes. Which again should not be 
an issue (hopefully) since I have been using the KVM switch for nearly a year 
now, and R Console did work earlier.

> > I have been searching through the mailing list, but did not find (or
> > might have overlooked :( ) anything on this issue. Should I try a newer
> > version from CVS?
>
> Well, you could try either the current SVN version
> svn co https://rkward.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/rkward/trunk
> or the 0.4.5pre1 preview release
> http://rkward.sourceforge.net/temp/rkward-0.4.5pre1.tar.gz
> But I'm not aware of any changes that might be relevant to this problem.

Can I have both 0.4.2-2 from debian repository AND 0.4.5pre1 from rkward site 
simultaneously? I read somewhere on the rkward wesite, that in order to 
compile from source, I will have to "make install" as root for things to 
work. I guess then a userland installation by setting a --prefix=$HOME/rkward 
to ./configure is not possible as of now? While on this issue, I hope a 
userland installation would be possible in future. 

Now, when I start rkward from menu/konsole in the new "rkward - konsole" that 
is started for R backend, shows there lines, before starting the R engine:

Debug-flags as decimal: 8191
kdecore (KAction): WARNING: KAction::insertKAccel( kaccel = 0x81695e0 ): 
KAccel object already contains an action name "window_close"
*** attempt to put segment in horiz list twice
*** attempt to put segment in horiz list twice

Apart from this the script editor seems fine.