is it possible to display plots in an emacs buffer?

[Stephen Eglen]

 > Lets try:
 > is it possible to display the plots R makes inside an emacs buffer?
 > 
 > I hope to get the usual answer... ;-)
Yes!

But that's a qualified yes...  I think it is _possible_, but as far as
I know, no-one has invested time in it.

 > I'll explain the idea a bit more. When I am working in emacs and make a 
 > plot, a new X11 window opens, I see the plot and to get back to emacs I 
 > have to close or minimize the X11, I loose quite a lot of time doing 
 > this every day. Wouldn't it be great if the plots could be displayed 
 > directly inside an emacs buffer?
 > 
 > I guess opening an X11 device inside an emacs buffer is not possible (am 
 > I right?) 

Not sure, but doubtful this would work.  As you said already, recent
versions of Emacs can open images, in png or other bitmap formats.
Other Emacs applications, such as preview-latex and imaxima take
advantage of this:

http://preview-latex.sourceforge.net/
http://www.ifa.au.dk/~harder/imaxima.html

So, your approach would be possible indeed.  However, I'd query
whether this would be the optimal way of working.  Is your screen not
big enough to contain both an Emacs window and a R X11 graphics
device?  Having only one window visible on the screen at a time is a
big constraint.  On my laptop, the default X11 device is too big so
that it does overlap with the Emacs window, but the X11 device can be
resized so that they both fit on the screen.

best wishes, Stephen