[ESS-bugs] Re: ess 5.2.2; TAB completion takes *ages* ..

[Martin Maechler]

This should have gone back to ESS-bugs :

------- start of forwarded message -------
From: David Heffernan <david at heffs.org.uk>
To: Martin Maechler <maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch>
Subject: Re: [ESS-bugs] ess 5.2.2; TAB completion takes *ages* ..
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 22:11:15 +0000

Martin,

Thanks a lot for getting back to me so quickly - it's much appreciated.

As you suggested I installed GNU Emacs 21.3 and the problem occurs 
exactly as before.

M-x ess-resynch takes an age:

Forming completions for .GlobalEnv...... (wait 20 seconds)
Forming completions for Methods.....
etc.
etc.

It takes a couple of minutes to get through all the environments / packages.

Have you any ideas what to try next?

Cheers, David.

Martin Maechler wrote:

>Yes indeed, this has not been a problem on Linux with R.
>
>You indicated using Emacs 20.7 which is from the last century.
>I don't really believe the problem to be an Emacs 20 one, but
>since ``everyone else'' uses Emacs 21.3 (I use 21.2
>occasionally) it would definitely make debugging easier.
>
>Thanks a lot for offering to debug this problem.
>AFAICS, I have no ess-r-namedb.el file either (on Linux) and
>still things work very fast.
>
>What happens when you (go to the *R* buffer and) type
>M-x ess-resynch ?
>It takes about half a second for me (fast Linux box though)
>your "current state" (below) looks exactly like mine...
>
>Regards,
>Martin
>
>  
>
>>>>>>"David" == David Heffernan <david at heffs.org.uk>
>>>>>>    on Wed, 18 Aug 2004 20:50:12 +0000 writes:
>>>>>>            
>>>>>>
>
>    David> Hi, I'm having problems with ESS tab completion.  The
>    David> problem occurs on both Windows 2000 and XP and
>    David> possible other Windows versions.  I'm using R version
>    David> 1.8.1 but I've had the problem with a various earlier
>    David> versions too so I don't think the R version is a
>    David> significant factor.
>
>    David> The first time you attempt a tab completion in ESS it
>    David> forms the list of available completions.  This
>    David> operation takes a *very* long time.  After that
>    David> completion works a treat for the duration of the ESS
>    David> session.  When you start another session it's back to
>    David> square one.
>
>    David> I'm aware of the ess-object-name-db game.  I followed
>    David> the instructions to create the ess-r-namedb.el file.
>    David> Then when I start ESS again the ess-object-name-db
>    David> variable is indeed defined (it's a local to the *R*
>    David> buffer).  But still the first tab completion takes an
>    David> age.
>
>    David> I know that there a many other users suffering with
>    David> the same problem (this is clear as a result of my
>    David> websearches to attempt to find a solution).  Do you
>    David> know of a solution to the problem?
>
>    David> The fact that the problem has been known for a while
>    David> and there has been no solution makes me wonder
>    David> whether the ESS developers can reproduce it.  I know
>    David> Linux users who don't experience this problem so that
>    David> seems plausible.  If this is the case then perhaps I
>    David> can help track it down since I can easily reproduce
>    David> the problem.  I work as a software developer and so
>    David> am experienced in tracking and debugging software
>    David> problems.  However, I've never debugged anything like
>    David> Emacs or ESS and realise that I would need some help
>    David> setting up a dev environment for debugging.
>
>
>    David> Cheers,
>
>
>    David> David Heffernan.
>
>
>    David> Emacs  : GNU Emacs 20.7.1 (i386-*-nt5.1.2600)
	         ............
------- end of forwarded message -------