Hi platusresearch,
FYI, if you actually render this with the reprex package, the images show up as well! (Although, now that I've run it, I see that that might kind of defeat the point, since this is about getting new windows to open).
I had nine graphicsDevices windows open.
# devtools::install_github("thomasp85/patchwork")
library(tidyverse)
library(patchwork)
library(grid)
x <- mtcars %>% rownames_to_column()
p1 <- x %>% ggplot(aes(x = rowname, y = mpg)) + geom_col()
p2 <- x %>% ggplot(aes(x = rowname, y = cyl)) + geom_col()
p3 <- x %>% ggplot(aes(x = rowname, y = wt)) + geom_col()
xx2 <- xx1 <- xx <- list(p1 = p1, p2 = p2, p3 = p3)
# Function using grid - works
plot_list1 <- function(name, list1, list2, list3) {
x11()
grid.draw(rbind(ggplotGrob(list1[[name]]),
ggplotGrob(list2[[name]]),
ggplotGrob(list3[[name]]), size = "last"))
}
plot_list1("p1", xx, xx1, xx2) # works
map(names(xx), ~plot_list1(name = ., xx, xx1, xx2)) # and works
#> [[1]]
#> NULL
#>
#> [[2]]
#> NULL
#>
#> [[3]]
#> NULL
# Function using patchwork works for one plot but misbehaves when used with map
plot_list <- function(name, list1, list2, list3) {
x11()
(list1[[name]] + list2[[name]] + list3[[name]] + plot_layout(ncol = 1))
}

# this works
plot_list("p1", xx, xx1, xx2)
# this does not :(
map(names(xx)[1:2], ~plot_list(name = ., list1 = xx, list2 = xx1, list3 = xx2))
#> [[1]]
#>
#> [[2]]
Created on 2018-07-27 by the reprex package (v0.2.0.9000).