[ESS-bugs] ess-mode 5.2.2; TAB completion takes *ages* at the start of each ESS session

[David Heffernan]

Hi,

I'm having problems with ESS tab completion.  The problem occurs on both 
Windows 2000 and XP and possible other Windows versions.  I'm using R 
version 1.8.1 but I've had the problem with a various earlier versions 
too so I don't think the R version is a significant factor.

The first time you attempt a tab completion in ESS it forms the list of 
available completions.  This operation takes a *very* long time.  After 
that completion works a treat for the duration of the ESS session.  When 
you start another session it's back to square one.

I'm aware of the ess-object-name-db game.  I followed the instructions 
to create the ess-r-namedb.el file.  Then when I start ESS again the 
ess-object-name-db variable is indeed defined (it's a local to the *R* 
buffer).  But still the first tab completion takes an age.

I know that there a many other users suffering with the same problem 
(this is clear as a result of my websearches to attempt to find a 
solution).  Do you know of a solution to the problem?

The fact that the problem has been known for a while and there has been 
no solution makes me wonder whether the ESS developers can reproduce 
it.  I know Linux users who don't experience this problem so that seems 
plausible.  If this is the case then perhaps I can help track it down 
since I can easily reproduce the problem.  I work as a software 
developer and so am experienced in tracking and debugging software 
problems.  However, I've never debugged anything like Emacs or ESS and 
realise that I would need some help setting up a dev environment for 
debugging.


Cheers,


David Heffernan.



Emacs  : GNU Emacs 20.7.1 (i386-*-nt5.1.2600)
 of Tue Jun 13 2000 on buffy
Package: ess-mode 5.2.2

current state:
==============
(setq
 ess-language "Initial"
 ess-dialect nil
 ess-ask-for-ess-directory t
 ess-ask-about-transfile nil
 ess-directory nil
 ess-keep-dump-files "always"
 ess-source-directory "/tmp/"
 )
[ess-site.el]: ess-customize-alist=nil
[ess-site.el _2_]: ess-customize-alist=nil
(R): ess-rterm-versions-create making M-x defuns for