[ESS] Activating electric "(" behavior {was "Release of ESS 5.3.5"}

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "Leo" == Leo  <sdl.web at gmail.com>
>>>>>     on Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:07:02 +0100 writes:

    Leo> On 2007-08-15 10:34 +0100, Martin Maechler wrote:
    >> 2) We've added a version of Sven Hartenstein's "R function arguments tips"
    >> functionality.   
    >> Note that this includes an "electric "("" behavior inside `R-mode'  which is
    >> active by default and can be customized.
    >> E.g. use  '(setq ess-r-args-electric-paren nil)' to turn it
    >> off.
    >> Further, ess-r-args-show-as allows to switch (from
    >> minibuffer) to "tooltip" mode.

    Leo> Can someone share how to enable this feature? 

Executive Summary:

  In an *.R buffer, type C-c C-s 
  to activate the feature.

Answer in Detail:

as the text you cite above says :
 " which is active by default ... "
but __ to my dismay!! __ unfortunately that's not true.

We botched up our release: one of the almost last changes
ended up making the feature's default behavior only be active in the
following circumstance:

In R-mode (i.e. typically in an *.R file buffer),
you need to have the
    ess-local-process-name 
variable to be non-nil, which is __ as I unfortunately only
found now __ not the case after starting R and opening the
buffer.
Rather, it becomes the buffer becomes connected to an R process
(and hence  ess-local-process-name  non nil) as soon as you have
started to send code to the running R process, or also
if you have started the R process from your R-mode buffer, e.g.,
via the Menu
     [ESS] -> [Start ESS process] -> [R]
or   [ESS] -> [Switch ESS process]
or simply via
  'C-c C-s'

    Leo> And can I use it in  inferior-ess-mode?

No. I had thought about that too, and found we should rather
encourage people to follow the paradigm that we've tried to
emphasize all the years:

||   The source is real.  Everything else is ephemeral
|| 
||   --> Do work with *.R files
||       Do not work with the *R* buffer 


or may that have been a bit snobbish an attitude ?

    Leo> Thanks in advance.

You're welcome!
Martin