running ESS with S-PLUS 6.1

[Satoshi Takahama]

Hello Dr. Heiberger,

After following your suggestions I was able to get both S+6 and Sqpe
working- I modified my .emacs file as you recommended, I obtained
ddeclient.exe and placed it in the same folder as Splus executable,
and I also created a directory path that has no spaces.

I have decided to stick with the S GUI rather than Sqpe for the fact
that the GUI is apparently necessary for the Edit.data() function
anyway, and help() apparently requires gnuclientw.exe when calling it
from Sqpe. I also did notice that in Sqpe I had to type
java.graph(),dev.off(), and then java.graph() again to actually get
the device to open, as noted by Andy Liaw in the ESS help mailing list
archives back in 2001.

I have only three minor questions remaining, which are not essential
and would not be offended if left unanswered:

1) Is it natural for ESS to take a very long time (~1 minute) to load
after typing M-x S [Return]? It takes about 7 seconds for S-PLUS to
load and then another 60 seconds for emacs to stop fontifying and
become ready for my input. The computer I am using is a Pentium M 1.5
MHz with 512MB of RAM so I don' think this is the problem.

2) When exiting S-PLUS and subsequently killing the placeholder buffer
for S+6 in emacs, I get the this message in the mode line:
(error/warning) Error in process sentinel: (buffer-read-only
*S+6*). Is this a problem that will hurt me unknowingly?

2) The second question is regarding the method of setting the default
directory. I looked at the documentation you suggested
<http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/general/ESS/doc/html/> and was able to set
default S-directory without being prompted, but S-PLUS takes that
directory and adds another level to it. For example, I set my default
directory to 'c:/HOME/Satoshi', and even if there is a .Data folder in
there already, S-PLUS will create and make its working directory
'c:/HOME/Satoshi/HOMESatoshi' instead (with its own .Data and .Prefs
directories), and if the default directory is
'c:/HOME/Satoshi/MySwork', S-PLUS will make
'c:/HOME/Satoshi/MySwork/HOMESatoshiMySwork' the working directory. I
also get the same result if I manually choose the default directory
when prompted. This is rather odd to me but if there is no quick fix I
am willing to live with it.

Thanks again for all of your help!

Satoshi

PS and thank you Andy for forwarding this to the correct help mailing 
list.


On Wed, 4 Aug 2004, Richard M. Heiberger wrote:

> there are two problems here.
>
> 1. pathnames with embedded blanks are a very poor convention and are the cause
> of one of the problems.
> "C:\Documents and Settings\Satoshi\My Documents\MySwork\"
>
> I recommend instead creating a new working directory without embedded blanks.
> I use
> c:\HOME\rmh
>
> Manually create the directories
> c:\HOME
> c:\HOME\Satoshi
> c:\HOME\Satoshi\.Data
>
> Open dired in c:\HOME\Satoshi
>
> Enter
> M-x S
>
> You will be prompted to let S-Plus create the .Prefs directory.
> Let it create .Prefs and then you will be in.
>
>
> 2. ddeclient
> is part of the emacs, but not xemacs, distribution.  You can get it from emacs
> and use it with xemacs.  To get it, as far as I know, you actually need to download
> emacs.  I don't know it is available on its own.
> If you want to use emacs on Windows, then download
> ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/emacs-21.3-fullbin-i386.tar.gz (18MB)
>
> If all you want is to use the ddeclient program then you can download the smaller
> ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/emacs-21.3-barebin-i386.tar.gz (4MB)
>
> The barebin program has no lisp and is therefore not executable by itself.
>
>
>
> 3. M-x S and M-x Sqpe
> M-x S opens the S-Plus GUI and talks to it through ddeclient.
>
> M-x Sqpe opens S without the GUI.  This gives the behavior with S running inside an
> emacs buffer that you are used to with Unix or with R.
> To get high quality graphics with Sqpe use the following lines
>   library(winjava)
>   java.graph()
>
>
> 4. S-Plus for Windows
> S-Plus for Windows is designed to be a native Windows application and does not follow
> the Unix conventions for standard input and standard output.  Therefore the Unix-like
> communication between emacs and the S-Plus GUI is not possible.  We must use the ddeclient
> as an intermediary between emacs and the S-Plus GUI.
>
> Sqpe is the language processor and it follows the Unix conventions.  Therefore we can talk
> to it inside an emacs buffer.  It doesn't use the GUI.  The new java.graph device (new with
> 6.1) allows the high quality graphics.
>
>
>
> 5. Documentation.  Look at the files
> ess/doc/html/index.html
> for full documentation including a discussion of these Windows issues.
>
>
>