[ESS] Code contribution or suggestion

[Jim_Garrett at bd.com]

   Hi all,
   I have just joined this list.  I've been using Emacs and ESS for years but
   only recently have I begun learning e-lisp and customizing Emacs.  I've also
   just begun using Sweave consistently.  I manage several other statisticians,
   and I'm training them on Sweave so that we may use it for all critical
   reports.  Along the way, I've taken some steps to automate the generation of
   boilerplate text in standard, common cases.  This has made it much easier to
   use Sweave, partly by reducing typing and partly to keep me from having to
   remember options.  This may be a form of dumbing-down but it does help one
   to get started quickly.
   I'd like to contribute some e-lisp functions I've written for possible
   inclusion  in  ESS.   They would be trivial for any experienced e-lisp
   programmer to write, so I guess I'm actually asking that something along
   these lines be included to help beginners set up Sweave documents.  (Or is
   something equivalent already there?)  I'm using ESS 5.10-1, Emacs 23.1.1,
   all from Ubuntu's repositories.
   Specifically, here are the things I've automated:
    1. Generating a skeletal LaTeX document with a standard preamble..
    2. Creating a skeleton for an Sweave code chunk that creates a figure.
    3. Similarly, for a table (using xtable).
    4. Similarly, for a code chunk that returns nothing (i.e., carries out
       necessary data processing but does not directly add to a report)

   Below are my functions.  Feel free to make whatever modifications you feel
   necessary, or to achieve these ends by other means.
   Best regards,
   Jim Garrett
   Baltimore, Maryland, USA
   1. To generate a template for a LaTeX file:
   (defun create-sweave-file ()
     "Insert contents of template file into buffer."
     (interactive nil)
     (insert-file-contents "~/.sweave-template.rnw"))
   where .sweave-template.rnw is
   \documentclass[english]{article}
   \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
   \usepackage[latin9]{inputenc}
   \usepackage{babel}
   \begin{document}
   \title{}
   \author{}
   \date{}
   \maketitle
   \end{document}
   I actually include more in the skeleton because I encourage a particular
   report format for my group, but I don't want to inflict those on everyone.
   2. To create a template for a code chunk that creates a figure:
   (defun insert-sweave-figure (label)
     "Insert standard figure stuff and R tags."
     (interactive "MEnter label: ")
     (insert
       (concat
   "\\begin{figure}
     \\begin{center}
   <<" label ", fig = T, echo = F>>=
   @
     \\end{center}
     \\caption{}
     \\label{fig:" label "}
   \\end{figure}")))
   (I like to leave 3 blank lines in the code block so that I can edit the
   middle one, leaving one above and below so it doesn't look crowded.)
   3. To create a template for a code chunk creating a table, using xtable:
   (defun insert-sweave-table (label)
     "Insert code that creates a LaTeX table through the xtable function."
     (interactive "MEnter label: ")
     (insert
      (concat
       "<<"
       label
       ", echo = F, results = tex>>=
   require(xtable)
   print(xtable(,
   caption = \"\",
   label = \"tab:"
       label
       "\"),
   include.rownames = F)
   @")))
   4. To create a template for a code chunk that returns no output:
   (defun insert-sweave-code (label)
     "Insert code block that produces no output."
     (interactive "MEnter label: ")
     (insert
      (concat
       "<<"
       label
       ", echo = F, include = F>>=
   @")))
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