[ESS-bugs] ess-mode 5.2.1 - (executable-find "acroread") is void

[Stephen Eglen]

hi John,

 > I just tried to upgrade from 5.2.0 to 5.2.1 but encountered a bug
 > at startup which I hope is straightforward to correct.
 > 
 > Using the option '-debug-init' at startup
 > and manually editing my .init.el file, 
 > I have isolated the problem to the line (in init.el)
 > 
 > (load "C:/Program Files/XEmacs/xemacs-packages/lisp/ess/lisp/ess-site.el")
 > 
 > With just this line on its own in my init.el file I 
 > get the following error message:
 > 
 > Signaling: (void-function executable-find)
 >   (executable-find "acroread")
 >   (setq ess-tmp-file (executable-find "acroread"))

The problem seems to come from here:

essa-sas.el:98:    (setq ess-tmp-file (executable-find "acroread"))

But I can't see why this should fail, unless it is a Windows/Unix
issue (I'm testing this on Unix).

Please try the following:

xemacs -q

Put the following in the *scratch* buffer:

 (executable-find "acroread")

And then, with point at end of that line, type C-x C-e
What message do you then get? For me, in the echo line I see
"/usr/bin/acroread"

If you get a pathname or nil, you should be okay.  But maybe you are
getting some error about it being a void function?  If so, we'll have
to test further on a windows platform.

Thanks, Stephen