# Pkg.add("BackendPackage") issue

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pkg-add-backendpackage-issue/5796>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Created:** [September 9, 2017, 12:05am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pkg-add-backendpackage-issue/5796 "2017-09-09T00:05:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chobbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@chobbes](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/chobbes)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 12:05am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pkg-add-backendpackage-issue/5796/1 "2017-09-09T00:05:01Z")

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Following the instruction on [this](https://juliaplots.github.io/tutorial/) page, I tried to install the package `BackendPackage`. I was bounced back by

```julia
unknown package BackendPackage

```

Is this package deprecated or obsolete?

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**Author:** ![Chong\_Wang](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chong_wang/32/20307_2.png) [@Chong\_Wang](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Chong_Wang)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 1:08am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pkg-add-backendpackage-issue/5796/2 "2017-09-09T01:08:28Z")

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The document says you should install correct backend package and `Pkg.add("BackendPackage")` only serves as an example how to install them. Available backends are `GR`, `Plotly`, `PyPlot`. So you should do something like `Pkg.add("GR")`.

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**Author:** ![chobbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@chobbes](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/chobbes)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 10:02am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pkg-add-backendpackage-issue/5796/3 "2017-09-09T10:02:36Z")

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Thanks! I see.

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**Author:** ![dpsanders](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dpsanders/32/3573_2.png) [@dpsanders](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dpsanders)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 12:50pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pkg-add-backendpackage-issue/5796/4 "2017-09-09T12:50:39Z")

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Writing the explicit sting “BackendPackage” is definitely confusing and bad practice.

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**Author:** ![ChrisRackauckas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chrisrackauckas/32/77_2.png) [@ChrisRackauckas](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ChrisRackauckas)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 2:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pkg-add-backendpackage-issue/5796/5 "2017-09-09T14:36:51Z")

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> [@dpsanders](#):
>
> Writing the explicit sting “BackendPackage” is definitely confusing and bad practice.

Could you make a PR to PlotsDocs.jl then? I thought it was pretty clear that it was a fake backend package (but from this issue I guess it’s not).

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**Author:** ![chobbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@chobbes](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/chobbes)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 2:50pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pkg-add-backendpackage-issue/5796/6 "2017-09-09T14:50:44Z")

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> When we started plotting above, our plot used the default backend. The default backend depends on what plotting packages you’ve installed in Julia. If have not previously installed any backend packages, this will plot to the browser using Plotly, or into the REPL using UnicodePlots.jl. However, let’s say we want a standard plotting backend which will plot into a nice GUI or into the plot pane of Juno. To do this, we’ll need a backend which is compatible with these features. Some common backends for this are PyPlot and GR. To install these backends, simply use the standard Julia installation (Pkg.add(“BackendPackage”)). We can specifically choose the backend we are plotting into by using the name of the backend in all lower case as a function. Let’s plot the example from above using Plotly and then GR (this assumes you’ve done Pkg.add(“GR”)!):

I guess a newbie like myself can hardly tell that `BackendPackage` here is just a placeholder. Actually, I thought it’s a package by installing which you get all popular backends.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chong\_Wang](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chong_wang/32/20307_2.png) [@Chong\_Wang](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Chong_Wang)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 2:51pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pkg-add-backendpackage-issue/5796/7 "2017-09-09T14:51:19Z")

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I thought the correct way to indicate it’s a fake backend package is to use italic fonts (I think I came across a few examples), but how to do that with markdown in code fences?

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**Author:** ![ChrisRackauckas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chrisrackauckas/32/77_2.png) [@ChrisRackauckas](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ChrisRackauckas)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 2:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pkg-add-backendpackage-issue/5796/8 "2017-09-09T14:55:29Z")

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Well if anyone has a suggestion for how to make this better, just submit a PR which edits this page: [https://github.com/JuliaPlots/PlotDocs.jl/blob/master/docs/tutorial.md](https://github.com/JuliaPlots/PlotDocs.jl/blob/master/docs/tutorial.md)