Programming Graphical User Interfaces in R

About this book

Programming Graphical User Interfaces with R introduces each of the major R packages for GUI programming: RGtk2, qtbase, Tcl/Tk, and gWidgets. With examples woven through the text as well as stand-alone demonstrations of simple yet reasonably complete applications, the book features topics especially relevant to statisticians who aim to provide a practical interface to functionality implemented in R.

Programming Graphical User Interfaces in R offers:
- A how-to guide for developing GUIs within R
- The fundamentals for users with limited knowledge of programming within R and other languages
- GUI design for specific functions or as learning tools

The accompanying package, ProgGUIinR, includes the complete code for all examples as well as functions for browsing the examples from the respective chapters. Accessible to seasoned, novice, and occasional R users, Programming Graphical User Interfaces in R shows that for many purposes, adding a graphical interface to one's work is not terribly sophisticated or time consuming.

Contents

The Fundamentals of Graphical User Interfaces
A simple GUI in R
GUI design principles
Controls
Containers

I The gWidgets Package
gWidgets: Overview
Constructors
Methods
Event handlers
Dialogs
Installation

gWidgets: Container Widgets
Top-level windows
Box containers
Grid layout: the glayout container
Paned containers: the gpanedgroup container
Tabbed notebooks: the gnotebook container

gWidgets: Control Widgets
Buttons
Labels
Text-editing controls
Selection controls
Display of tabular data
Display of hierarchical data
Actions, menus, and toolbars

gWidgets: R-specific Widgets
A graphics device
A data frame editor
Workspace browser
Help browser
Command line widget
Simplifying creation of dialogs

II The RGtkPackage
RGtk2: Overview
Synopsis of the RGtk2R Package!RGtkAPI
Objects and classes
Constructors
Methods
Properties
Events and signals
Enumerated types and flags
The event loop
Importing a GUI from Glade

RGtk2: Windows, Containers, and Dialogs
Top-level windows
Layout containers
Dialogs
Special-purpose containers

RGtk2: Basic Components
Buttons
Static text and images
Input controls
Progress reporting
Wizards
Embedding R graphics
Drag-and-drop

RGtk2: Widgets Using Data Models
Displaying tabular data
Displaying hierarchical data
Model-based combo boxes
Text-entry widgets with completion
Sharing buffers between text entries
Text views
Text buffers

RGtk2: Application Windows
Actions
Menus
Toolbars
Status reporting
Managing a complex user interface

Extending GObject Classes

III The qtbase Package
Qt: Overview
The Qt library
An introductory example
Classes and objects
Methods and dispatch
Properties
Signals
Enumerations and flags
Extending Qt classes from R
QWidget basics
Importing a GUI from QtDesigner

Qt: Layout Managers and Containers
Layout basics
Box layouts
Grid layouts
Form layouts
Frames
Separators
Notebooks
Scroll areas
Paned windows

Qt: Widgets
Dialogs
Labels
Buttons
Checkboxes
Radio groups
Combo boxes
Sliders and spin boxes
Single-line text
QWebView widget
Embedding R graphics
Drag-and-drop

Qt: Widgets Using Data Models
Displaying tabular data
Displaying lists
Model-based combo boxes
Accessing item models
Item selection
Sorting and filtering
Decorating items
Displaying hierarchical data
User editing of data models
Drag-and-drop in item views
Widgets with internal models
Implementing custom models
Implementing custom views
Viewing and editing text documents

Qt: Application Windows
Actions
Menu bars
Context menus
Toolbars
Status bars
Dockable widgets

IV The tcltk Package
Tcl/Tk: Overview
A first example
Interacting with Tcl
Constructors
Events and callbacks

Tcl/Tk: Layout and Containers
Top-level windows
Frames
Geometry managers
Other containers

Tcl/Tk: Dialogs and Widgets
Dialogs
Selection widgets

Tcl/Tk: Text, Tree, and Canvas Widgets
Scroll bars
Multiline text widgets
Menus
Treeview widget
Canvas widget

Concept index
Class and method index

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