[ESS-bugs] Re: Setting dump file name

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "MM" == Martin Maechler <maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch>
>>>>>     on Thu, 25 Sep 2003 11:55:49 +0200 writes:

>>>>> "MatW" == Wiener, Matthew <matthew_wiener at merck.com>
>>>>>     on Wed, 24 Sep 2003 20:42:20 -0400 writes:

    MatW> Hi, all.  I am trying to remove my user name from the
    MatW> beginning of my dump files.  I save them in
    MatW> project-specific directories that no-one else is
    MatW> using, so there's no risk of confusion, and it will
    MatW> help in putting them into a version control system so
    MatW> other people can in fact work on them.

    MatW> I have tried putting the following into my .emacs
    MatW> file: (setq ess-dump-filename-template "%s.S")

    MM> Nowadays, the recommended via is using "Customize Emacs" 
    MM> (from the [Options] menu, 
    MM> either or directly by middle-mouse clicking on the
    MM> underlined word "customize" in the help page you get after
    MM> C-h v ess-dump-filename-template
    MM> )

    MM> which automagically produces something like

    MM> (custom-set-variables
    MM> ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom -- don't edit or cut/paste it!
    MM> ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
    MM> '(ess-dump-filename-template "%s.R")
    MM> )

    MM> in your ~/.emacs

    MatW> But it doesn't seem to help.  
    MM> nor does the modern "customize" way.

    MatW> Changing, for example, the dump directory in the same
    MatW> .emacs file does change the directory to which files
    MatW> are dumped.
    MM> (yes, I know, since I've been doing that since ever ..)

    MatW> Any ideas?

    MM> It's a bug  {---> hence CC: to "ESS-bugs"} :

    MM> After adding the above, restarting Emacs, 
    MM> M-x R 
    MM> C-c C-d pi
    MM> then  C-h v ess-dump-filename-template
    MM> gives a *Help* buffer 
    MM> ---------------------------------------------------------------
    MM> ess-dump-filename-template's value is "%s.S"
    MM> Local in buffer maechler.pi.R; global value is "maechler.%s.R"

    MM> ...
    MM> ...
    MM> ---------------------------------------------------------------

    MM> Which shows that the variable's setting is not used everywhere
    MM> it should. Grepping in ess/lisp/*.el quickly reveals that
    MM> all the essd-*.el  files
    MM> explicitly construct  ess-dump-filename-template by prepending
    MM> (user-login-name) .... 
    MM> and post-pending the correct ending, namely  ess-suffix:  .R or
    MM> .S or ....

    MM> Ok, I'm working on fixing this.  I think a nice solution looks
    MM> possible.

    MM> As a workaround, do edit the ess/lisp/essd-<dialect>.el file
    MM> e.g., for R, it's  ess/lisp/essd-r.el file.

One bug fix is to do the following replacement
e.g. in (defvar R-customize-alist ...)
		~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
in essd-r.el :

--- essd-r.el	8 Aug 2003 14:41:49 -0000	5.44
+++ essd-r.el	25 Sep 2003 10:20:34 -0000
@@ -52,9 +52,9 @@
     (ess-dialect                   . "R")
     (ess-suffix                    . "R")
     (ess-loop-timeout              . 500000 )
-    (ess-dump-filename-template    . (concat (user-login-name)
-					     ".%s."
-					     ess-suffix))
+    (ess-dump-filename-template    . (replace-regexp-in-string
+				      "S$" ess-suffix ; in the one from custom:
+				      ess-dump-filename-template))
     (ess-mode-editing-alist        . S-editing-alist)
     (ess-mode-syntax-table         . S-syntax-table)
     (ess-help-sec-regex            . ess-help-R-sec-regex)
----------------------------------

and do this in all (about a dozen) essd-*.el files.

But I think it's conceptually wrong:  If
ess-dump-filename-template
is set via customize and initialized in ess-cust.el,
the above "substitution" should be compulsory and not part of
the {old-style, pre-custom !}  R-customize-alist.



I propose to move the equivalent of the code

 (ess-dump-filename-template    . (replace-regexp-in-string
				       "S$" ess-suffix ; in the one from custom:
				       ess-dump-filename-template))

directly into the  (inferior-ess ..) function {in ess-inf.el}
just after the
      (ess-setq-vars-local ess-customize-alist buf)
statement
{and make sure ess-dump-filename-template  does become a local variable!}.

Actually I think, the variable to be customized should be

 (defcustom ess-dump-fname-proto-template (concat (user-login-name) ".%s.S")
   "*Prototype template for filenames of dumped objects.
 The ending `S' is replaced by the current \\[ess-suffix], to give
 \\[ess-dump-filename-template] when an inferior ESS process starts."

   :group 'ess-edit
   :type 'string)

And the ess-dump-filename-template variable used by C-c C-d
should be a function of
  ess-dump-fname-proto-template  and  ess-suffix

and should *not* be customized itself
which poses the question where to  (defvar ..) it;
ess-vars.el now being completely empty...

Comments?  Different proposals?