[BlindRUG] latest updates in BrailleR

[Godfrey, Jonathan]

Hello all,

I've been trying to fix a few problems with the BrailleR package on and off for a few months now, few of which were of my own making, but all of which are my responsibility. Thank you for your patience.

Problems started with several changes to the ggplot2 package and the way that the VI.ggplot() function interrogated graphs made using anything ggplot() like. I've just found another issue in the last few days following another change buried deep in ggplot2 somewhere.

There is good news though, and I think it is a major step change in the way we interact with graphs in R.

First, as a consequence of tangling with ggplot(), I reached out to Hadley Wickham and friends to see if I could get a small but awesome change to plot.ggplot() = print.ggplot(). This has occurred and the change has been rolled out on CRAN.

Second, I've worked with a few collaborators to fix one or two things for describing ggplot() graphs.

To benefit from the news below, you will need to update your ggplot2 package (from CRAN), and your BrailleR package (currently not quite back to CRAN but hopefully very, very soon). You might want to hold off until I get BrailleR back to CRAN to make life easier on yourself.

The news is that as of v0.31.4 of BrailleR, when you load BrailleR, the GoBlind() option will be automatically set. To undo it, you need to issue GoSighted(). While you are in the default "blind" mode, you will no longer need to issue VI() to get a text description of plots constructed using ggplot(), including commands that are extending ggplot2 functionality. This is in effect in interactive R sessions, but may overflow a screen of output if the graph is too rich. It also works in R markdown documents too which is what I was really hoping to achieve.

The consequences of this change are massive, and I'm not sure how long it will take for me to really grapple with the list of things I must now do, including:


  1.  Rewrite the chapter in BrailleR in Action referring to using ggplot() graphs. If you go to that chapter, you'll find a lot of repetition of text descriptions.
  2.  Re-consider the package vignettes
  3.  Consider removing some of the historic support for base graphics, especially the tiresome work around functions I had to develop, maintain, and promote so that we could get useful graphs,.
  4.  Update the convenience functions in BrailleR that create Rmd files for common activities.
  5.  Increase the range of graphs that are supported by VI.ggplot(); this means developing functions that deal with currently unsupported geom_*() functions in ggplot2 and other commonly used packages.

I'll also get a chance to look into any GitHub requests. I think getting back onto CRAN will resolve most problems though.

Jonathan

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