[ESS] S+ re-factoring ( some recent bugs/annoyances)

[Vitalie Spinu]

  >> gerald.jean at dgag.ca
  >> on Wed, 12 Dec 2012 10:28:58 -0500 wrote:

[...]


  gj> I am willing to test this release from SVN but have never installed
  gj> anything from SVN, where do I find how to do it???

It's very easy. The somewhat obfuscated instructions are
http://ess.r-project.org/Manual/ess.html#Installation

Just do 
 
    svn checkout https://svn.r-project.org/ESS/trunk ESS

this creates ESS directory with the source inside. Switch to it and do 

    make

This step is not strictly necessary but it makes things faster.

Now add to your init file:

(load "~/path/to/ESS/lisp/ess-site")

That's all. 

[...]


  >> > args("plot")
  >> function (x, y, ...)
  >> NULL
  >> >

Good, now check if this function works:

  funnargs <- 
    function(object){
      funname <- as.character(substitute(object))
      fun <- tryCatch(object, error=function(e) NULL) ## works for special objects also
      if(is.function(fun)) {
        args <- args(fun)
        fmls <- formals(args)
        fmls_names <- names(fmls)
        fmls <- gsub('\"', '\\\"', as.character(fmls), fixed=TRUE)
        args_alist <- sprintf("'(%s)", paste("(\"", fmls_names, "\" . \"", fmls, "\")", sep = '', collapse = ' '))
        envname <- environmentName(environment(fun))
        cat(sprintf('(list \"%s\" %s )\n', envname, args_alist))
      }
    }

it should do something of this kind:


  > funnargs(plot)
  (list "graphics" '(("x" . "") ("y" . "") ("..." . "")) )
  > funnargs(ls)
  (list "base" '(("name" . "") ("pos" . "-1") ("envir" . "as.environment(pos)") ("all.names" . "FALSE") ("pattern" . "")) )

If it works, then we are done. You will have your eldoc in the evening. 

Let me know what it returns for local functions:

  > tt <- list(fun =  function(a = 4, b = 5) a*b)
  > funnargs(tt$fun)
  (list "R_GlobalEnv" '(("a" . "4") ("b" . "5")) )


Vitalie