INTERNAL: While logged into Mac OS X 10.8 as "root", XQuartz cannot run -- and so IDL cannot display graphics or widgets in this environment.

When a user is logged into Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) as the user "root", XQuartz cannot start (it crashes) and so an IDL session running in this environment cannot display any graphics or widgets.

Based on the following XQuartz bug report:

    http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/ticket/561

it seems that XQuartz was not designed/intended to run when a user is logged in (locally) to Mac OS X as user "root".