ESS and R

[Rich Heiberger]

The short answer to all your questions is "yes".

You get ESS from
http://software.biostat.washington.edu/statsoft/ess/
and run it with either emacs or xemacs.
GNU Emacs is at
  ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/windows/emacs/latest/
then download, save, and execute emacs-21.3-fullbin-i386.tar.gz

a. download ESS and unzip it.  I keep ESS at /emacs/ess/
place the line
 (load-file "/emacs/ess/lisp/ess-site.el")
in your ~/.emacs file.

Start R from within emacs with
M-x R

R now runs inside emacs in the *R* buffer.

You do not use Rgui at all.

b. You edit R programs in a file, for example, myfile.r, and send the lines
over to R for execution with the command C-c C-n

You edit LaTeX files in a file, myfile.tex, and send them to latex with the
command C-c C-f

I normally have several R files open and several latex files open, and work
with all of them simultaneously.

c. Emacs and ESS do not use the Windows registry.

d. see b above.  

e. they go to a normal R graphics window

f. If you figured out how to print using XP, then do the same.

g. Not with the interaction of emacs ESS and R

h. In the documentation.
ess/doc/ESS_intro.tex
ess/doc/rmh-talk.tex
ess/info/ess.info


As Kasper Daniel Hansen wrote, if you are already an emacs user
then ESS is the only sensible choice for interaction with R.

If you are not yet an emacs user, then it is worth the investment in
time to become one.

Rich