geom_wordcloud : is this a pipe dream

Question

I deal a bit with textual data across various grouping variables. I\'m thinking of creating a method to make faceted wordcloud plots using Ian Fellows\' wordcloud

Answer 1

This is a possible solution using ggplot2 style: https://github.com/lepennec/ggwordcloud

Answer 2

This may be a pipe dream, and it certainly isn't easy to re-use the wordcloud code:

1. As Ian Fellows points out in a comment, the wordcloud code calculates word sizes and positions in base graphics.
2. A geom-aware modification of the code needs to be aware of facets.

In terms of making it work, a framework for designing a solution might be:

1. Rewrite wordcloud to calculate word sizes in grid graphics, rather than base graphics
2. Write the results of word size and position to a data frame
3. Wrap the calculations in a function called stat_wordcloud
4. Modify geom_text to a new geom_wordcloud

So, it's a pipe dream, but I'd be keen to use it once you've made it ;-)