swfDevice: R graphics device for swf (flash) output Status: Pre-Alpha

Description: This package provides the swf() graphics device in R. Using Ming library (http://www.libming.org/) , this device can create flash movies from R plotting commands. My vision for this device is that multipage output will be rendered as movies with specifiable parameters and optional buttons for control.

System Requirements: Depends on libming version >= 0.4.0beta5. This version introduced support for ttf fonts without conversion. The windows version will attempt to compile ming from source.

Todo

• Device features to address/investigate
  • xCharOffset yCharOffset
  • yLineBias
  • ipr: pixels per inch
  • cra: default character size in pixels
  • gamma
  • canClip: will be much harder than tikzDevice
  • canChangeGamma
  • canHAdj: not supported
  • startps: ditto
  • hasTextUTF8: should be possible with ming
  • wantSymbolUTF8: ditto
  • useRotatedTextInContour: ditto
• Implement remaining graphics parameters
  • gamma
  • lend
  • ljoin
  • lmitre
  • lineheight
• Graphics primitives
  • metricInfo (is currently returning the same metrics for all characters, this is bad but does not severely affect the text placement)
  • textUTF8
  • strWidthUTF8
• Working windows build that does not crash when any operation is performed
• Fix mixed up font faces

Lessons Learned

• SWFShape_setRightFillStyle() and SWFShape_setLine2() do not play nicely

Planned Features

• Better control over player controls
• R Bindings to the ming library (will this really be useful?)
  • Control subset of parameters at the R level
• Option to wrap swf in html output