modify lattice R splom to draw axis ticks and tick labels on outside of entire plot

Readme.md

In response to a tweet, try to draw a R lattice splom or pairs plot with the ticks and tick labels on the outside of the superpanel or the entire graph. I could not find any examples, so I resorted to the source code. I still could not find an acceptable answer, but this gets as close as possible.

code.R

require(lattice)
require(grid)

#this setting controls whether it will show up or not
#default is panel = "on", strip = "on"
trellis.par.set("clip",list(panel="off",strip="off"))

#almost exact copy of diag.panel.splom from lattice package
#https://r-forge.r-project.org/scm/viewvc.php/pkg/R/splom.R?view=markup&root=lattice
#but uses outside=T for axis
diag.panel.splom2 <-
  function(x = NULL,
           varname = NULL, limits, at = NULL, labels = NULL,
           draw = TRUE, tick.number = 5,
           
           varname.col = add.text$col,
           varname.cex = add.text$cex,
           varname.lineheight = add.text$lineheight,
           varname.font = add.text$font,
           varname.fontfamily = add.text$fontfamily,
           varname.fontface = add.text$fontface,
           
           axis.text.col = axis.text$col,
           axis.text.alpha = axis.text$alpha,
           axis.text.cex = axis.text$cex,
           axis.text.font = axis.text$font,
           axis.text.fontfamily = axis.text$fontfamily,
           axis.text.fontface = axis.text$fontface,
           axis.text.lineheight = axis.text$lineheight,
           
           axis.line.col = axis.line$col,
           axis.line.alpha = axis.line$alpha,
           axis.line.lty = axis.line$lty,
           axis.line.lwd = axis.line$lwd,
           axis.line.tck = 1,
           ...)
{
    add.text <- trellis.par.get("add.text")
    axis.line <- trellis.par.get("axis.line")
    axis.text <- trellis.par.get("axis.text")
    if (!is.null(varname))
      
      grid.text(varname,
                name = trellis.grobname("diag.text", type="panel"),
                gp =
                  gpar(col = varname.col,
                       cex = varname.cex,
                       lineheight = varname.lineheight,
                       fontface = lattice:::chooseFace(varname.fontface, varname.font),
                       fontfamily = varname.fontfamily))
    if (draw) ## plot axes
    {
      rot <- if (is.numeric(limits)) 0 else c(90, 0)
      axis.details <-
        lattice:::formattedTicksAndLabels.default(limits,
                                                  at = if (is.null(at)) TRUE else at,
                                                  labels = if (is.null(labels)) TRUE else labels,
                                                  logsc = FALSE,
                                                  ..., n = tick.number)
      for (side in c("left", "bottom")) #,top", "right", "bottom"))
        panel.axis(side = side,
                   at = axis.details$at,
                   labels = axis.details$labels,
                   check.overlap = axis.details$check.overlap,
                   ticks = TRUE,
                   half = F,
                   outside = T,
                   
                   tck = axis.line.tck,
                   rot = rot, 
                   
                   text.col = axis.text.col,
                   text.alpha = axis.text.alpha,
                   text.cex = axis.text.cex,
                   text.font = axis.text.font,
                   text.fontfamily = axis.text.fontfamily,
                   text.fontface = axis.text.fontface,
                   text.lineheight = axis.text.lineheight,
                   
                   line.col = axis.line.col,
                   line.alpha = axis.line.alpha,
                   line.lty = axis.line.lty,
                   line.lwd = axis.line.lwd)
    }
  }


splom(
  ~iris[1:4]
  , groups = Species
  , data = iris
  , panel = function(x,y,i,j,...){
    #if in column 1 or row 1 make an axis
    if (i == 1 ) {#|| (i == 2 && j == 1) ) {
      panel.axis(
        side = "bottom"
        ,at = pretty(x)
        ,check.overlap=T
        ,half=F
        ,outside=T
      )
    }
    
    if (j == 1) {
      panel.axis(
        side = "left"
        ,at=pretty(y)
        ,check.overlap=T
        ,half=F
        ,outside=T
      )
    }
    panel.xyplot(x,y,...)
    #print(as.list(match.call()))
  }
  , diag.panel = function(varname,draw,...){
    #do draw = F since already drawing axis on outer edges
    #of superpanel
    #more manual than I would like but we only want x
    #in first diag panel so 
    #in case of iris set varname == "Sepal.Length"
    if(varname=="Sepal.Length") draw = T else draw = F
    diag.panel.splom2(varname,draw =draw,...)
    #print(as.list(match.call()))
    #print(varname)
  }
  ,xlab=" "
)