[ESS] ?':::' hangs

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> Rodney Sparapani <rsparapa at mcw.edu>
>>>>>     on Wed, 4 Dec 2013 13:05:56 -0600 writes:

    > On 12/04/2013 12:50 PM, Ross Boylan wrote:
    >> ESS from git as of yesterday + emacs 23.4 + R 2.15.1
    >> 

    > I'm using SVN as of right now ;o) r5934 + emacs 24.3.1 + R
    > 2.15.3

    >> ?':::' simply hangs--spinning cursor ctl-g stops the
    >> spinning but does not return to an R command prompt ctl-c
    >> ctl-c interrupts and gets a command prompt.
    >> 

    > same here

    >> ?::: returns to the command prompt immediately;
    >> the*Messages* buffer shows Error: unexpected ':::' in
    >> "?:::"
    >> 
    >> help(':::') displays the appropriate help.
    >> 

    > dittos

yes, these problems bugs have been with us for a while.
But no, they won't be fixed in the imminent release of ESS 13.09-1

    >> I've had a string of quirky, only semi-reproducible
    >> errors; maybe this is another one.  I did restart emacs
    >> and the error persisted (actually, before that I also
    >> couldn't get any help at all--help is working generally
    >> in the new session).

    > No, not for me.  Help is working fine.

Actually, I've also seen occasional "break down" of help...
but then I'm running R sessions in an open emacs sometimes for
days, and in the mean time recompile the version of R running
inside emacs,.... so I'm used to occasional breakage of my
particular setup, and as I work with the principle "the source
is real" {and hence all expensive computations are  save()d and
subsequently load()ed},
killing R (C-c C-q; no question asked with my default
'--no-save') and restarting it (M-x R) happen within a few
seconds as part of the reflexes my fingers learnt long ago...

Martin