[ESS-bugs] ESS mode for Emacs

[Rodney Sparapani]

Jean-Baptiste Rouquier wrote:
> Dear ESS team,
> I am an emacs fan and infrequent user of ESS. As such, I have installed the
> debian package "ess" to conveniently write R scripts with emacs. But most of the
> time, I don't use the "*ESS*" buffer, so it is a bit irritating that it always
> appears in the buffer list and make it a bit cluttered each time I switch
> buffer.  Also, loading ESS everytime I launch emacs slightly increases the
> startup time.
>
> The fix is to use the "autoload" emacs function, to load ESS just in time when
> needed, and not to use the "require" function. Most other emacs modes I use do
> this, so it seems to be the standard.
> I'm attaching a patch, this fix works, but I have not tested it extensively.
>
> Bascally, I am suggesting to modify those lines from the ESS README about Unix
> Installation:
>
>   2. Then, add the line
>           (require 'ess-site)
>      to `~/.emacs' and restart Emacs.
>
>
> Thanks a lot,
> Jean-Baptiste
>
>
>   
Hi Jean:

It's a good suggestion.  However, I'm not sure that the autoload 
functionality
is portable across different emacs variants.  For example, the last time 
that
I looked at this; Emacs and XEmacs did it differently.  Not only that, but
when we were trying to be too cute about it for the defunct XEmacs package;
we/I introduced a bug.  Therefore, we tend to subscribe to K.I.S.S.

Thanks,

-- 
Rodney Sparapani       Center for Patient Care and Outcomes Research
Sr. Biostatistician               http://www.mcw.edu/pcor
4 wheels good, 2 wheels better!   Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW)
WWLD?:  What Would Lombardi Do?   Milwaukee, WI, USA