R/ggplot2 - directlabels package generating errors even with given example code

Question

I've installed the "directlabels" package from http://directlabels.r-forge.r-project.org/, along with its dependency "quadprog". The first example from that page works:

install.packages("directlabels", repo="http://r-forge.r-project.org")
library(lattice)
library(directlabels)
direct.label(xyplot(jitter(Sepal.Length)~jitter(Petal.Length),iris,groups=Species))

But the second example doesn't:

install.packages("ggplot2")
library(ggplot2)
data(BodyWeight,package="nlme")
p <- qplot(Time,weight,data=BodyWeight,colour=Rat,geom="line",facets=.~Diet)
direct.label(p,"first.qp")
direct.label(p,"last.qp")

I've tried running it on two computers: the work computer which is locked down and uses an older version of R (3.5.1), RStudio (1.1.463) and outdated package repository that required "quadprog" to be installed manually, and my home computer which has the latest version of R and RStudio and was able to install quadprog automatically.

Running direct.label(p,"first.qp") at work produces Error:xmust be a string or a R connection and at home produces Error in parse(text = x) : <text>:1:2: unexpected ';' 1: ~;.

If I just run direct.label(p) both work and home produce Error in switch(geom, density = "top.bumptwice", line = { : EXPR must be a length 1 vector. I also get this error with a basic ggplot of my own.

Is it possible to get this package working or is it just too old and poorly maintained these days?

Answer 1

The rforge version is deprecated (development stopped in 2015 as mentioned here) and must not be used anymore.

You can either install the developmental version of directlabels from GitHub:

# In order to download and install a package from a GitHub hosted repository, install the 'devtools' library (if not available):
if(!require(devtools)) install.packages("devtools")
# Next, install your package using the install_github("username/repo") command:
devtools::install_github("tdhock/directlabels")

or fetch it directly from a CRAN mirror - this is the solution you've ventured into as per your comment above (i.e. install.packages("directlabels")), as "Installing without specifying the repository" defaults to the CRAN link for repos.

I suppose that the source of your installation method came from what's mentioned in http://directlabels.r-forge.r-project.org/, which was indeed last updated several years ago. For future reference to the package and/or documentation needs, please refer to https://tdhock.github.io/directlabels/ now instead. (the website link in the GitHub repo has been recently updated to that as well)