R - What does ggplot2 use as its backend for graphing?

Question

I was wondering how the package ggplot2 renders its graphics or what frameworks/libraries it uses. I think it has some C++ components, so I'm wondering if it uses an R, C++, or even JavaScript library to do its work for it.

Answer 1

ggplot, and lattice too, are based on the grid package by Paul Murrell. It is a rewrite of basic graphical capabilities and so does not use the base package. The code's on github (see link in the comment below), and you can see that it uses both R and C.

Paul Murrell's book, R Graphics is a great reference for R graphics in general.