Compiling

When I try to install the R package, I get errors about RNetscape.h not being found (no such file or directory)

I have seen this on a Solaris machine using GNU make, version 3.75. The dependencies are in the Makevars file and should be honored by make. But apparently this is not happening.

Run-time Errors

When I run netstcape, how do check that the Plugin has been found?

Click on the Help menu (top-right corner of the Netscape window) and select About Plug-ins. This will display a page listing the plugins. You should see both the interpreter and graphics plugin.

When I try to run an example that use the plugin, it immediately crashes.

You probably haven't set the environment R_HOME. Before running Netscape, please do this with the command

       setenv R_HOME `R RHOME`

within the C shell (or Tcsh shell), and

       R_HOME=`R RHOME`
       export R_HOME

in the Bourne shell. Future versions of the plugin may set this automatically if it is not set.

For which versions of Netscape does this package work?

I have run this successfully on Linux using version 4.72 of Netscape and on Solaris using version 4.75. It should, however, work for any platform supported by the Netscape Plugin SDK

On some Solaris machines, when I load a page that loads the SNetscape plugin, Netscape crashes with a Bus error. Any ideas?

We have see this on one of our machines and have worked around it by invoking the netscape executable itself rather than the netscape shell script which is normally used. For example, I invoke /usr/lib/netscape/netscape-communicator on Linux and /opt/netscape-4.75-us/netscapeand then things work fine.

When I load a page that uses the plugin, I get a message about not being able to find the Java Environment reference. What can I do about this?

Basically, this message means that you have Java turned-off in your browser preferences. You should edit the preferences by clicking on the Edit menu and then the Preferences item in that menu. Within the dialog, click on the Advanced section and select the checkbox entitled Enable Java. Then, reload the page!

When I try to use R to create a PNG figure I get an error something like

 libpng error: Incompatible libpng version in application and library.

What's happening?

The problem is that the R graphics devices have been compiled with one version of the png libraries and Netscape has been compiled with another. These two are not compatible, and while things work fine in the stand-alone R, when R is running inside Netscape it is told to use Netscape's version of the png library. And that is when we get the error.

Can we fix this? Perhaps. It will require some thinking and potential re-organization.

Where I can I find out more about JavaScript.

An online resource is http://developer.netscape.com/tech/javascript/resources.html
David Flanagan's book is probably the best source of information for getting the big picture and useful as a reference.

I get a JavaScript error but I cannot find any information about it.