[ESS] ESS 13.05 released

Martin Maechler maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch
Wed May 15 09:18:18 CEST 2013


A few moments ago, we have relased  ESS 13.05.

This is "big step" release  in the following sense:
There are several small improvements and also *NON* backcompatible 
changes of defaults on purpose  (all of which can be reverted if you need):

1) "ess-tracebug" has been turned on by default, which influences
  and facilitates debugging .. but also needs some "getting used to".

2) ess ElDoc is more visible, more "helping", but therefore
   potentially surprising before you're getting used to.
   OTOH, it should be more transparent to the R user as "ESSR"
   now is part of search().

3) The default ess-style has been changed from years of 'DEFAULT'
   to 'RRR',  see the recent e-mails on ESS-help, for the main
   rason that a close cousin of RRR has been in use in Vincent
   Goulet's Windows and MacOS distros for ESS. 


Below is the first half of the ANNOUNCE file part of the ESS docu.
Also note at the very bottom the cited e-mail from Rodney
Sparapani who gives links into the online version of the ESS
manual for the most important changes.

In the name of the ESS Core Team,

Martin Maechler, 
ETH Zurich

----------------------------

1 ANNOUNCING ESS
****************

The ESS Developers proudly announce the release of ESS

   13.05

   Emacs Speaks Statistics (ESS) provides an intelligent, consistent
interface between the user and the software.  ESS interfaces with
R/S-PLUS, SAS, BUGS/JAGS, Stata and other statistical analysis packages
under the UNIX, GNU Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and other
operating systems.  ESS is a package for the GNU Emacs and XEmacs text
editors whose features ESS uses to streamline the creation and use of
statistical software.  ESS knows the syntax and grammar of statistical
analysis packages and provides consistent display and editing features
based on that knowledge.  ESS assists in interactive and batch
execution of statements written in these statistical analysis languages.

   ESS is freely available under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Please read the file COPYING which comes with the distribution, for
more information about the license. For more detailed information,
please read the README files that come with ESS.

1.1 Getting the Latest Version
==============================

The latest released version of ESS is always available on the web at:
ESS web page (http://ess.r-project.org) or StatLib
(http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/general/ESS/)

1.1.1 ESS subversion repository
-------------------------------

The latest development version of ESS is available via
`https://svn.R-project.org/ESS/', the ESS Subversion repository.  If
you have a Subversion client (see `http://subversion.tigris.org/'), you
can download the sources using:
     % svn checkout https://svn.r-project.org/ESS/trunk PATH
   which will put the ESS files into directory PATH.  Later, within
that directory, `svn update' will bring that directory up to date.
Windows-based tools such as TortoiseSVN are also available for
downloading the files.  Alternatively, you can browse the sources with a
web browser at: ESS SVN site (https://svn.r-project.org/ESS/trunk).
However, please use a subversion client instead to minimize the load
when retrieving.

   If you remove other versions of ESS from your emacs load-path, you
can then use the development version by adding the following to .emacs:

     (load "/path/to/ess-svn/lisp/ess-site.el")

   Note that https is required, and that the SSL certificate for the
Subversion server of the R project is

     Certificate information:
      - Hostname: svn.r-project.org
      - Valid: from Jul 16 08:10:01 2004 GMT until Jul 14 08:10:01 2014 GMT
      - Issuer: Department of Mathematics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, CH
      - Fingerprint: c9:5d:eb:f9:f2:56:d1:04:ba:44:61:f8:64:6b:d9:33:3f:93:6e:ad

(currently, there is no "trusted certificate").  You can accept this
certificate permanently and will not be asked about it anymore.

1.1.2 Git for development
-------------------------

For development and experimentation on new features, there is now a
GitHub branch for ESS, available at `https://github.com/emacs-ess/ESS'.

1.2 Current Features
====================

   * Languages Supported:
        * S family (R and S+ AKA S-PLUS)

        * SAS

        * OpenBUGS/JAGS

        * Stata

        * Julia

   * Editing source code (S family, SAS, OpenBUGS/JAGS, Stata, Julia)
        * Syntactic indentation and highlighting of source code

        * Partial evaluation of code

        * Loading and error-checking of code

        * Source code revision maintenance

        * Batch execution (SAS, OpenBUGS/JAGS)

        * Use of imenu to provide links to appropriate functions

   * Interacting with the process (S family, SAS, Stata, Julia)
        * Command-line editing

        * Searchable Command history

        * Command-line completion of S family object names and file
          names

        * Quick access to object lists and search lists

        * Transcript recording

        * Interface to the help system

   * Transcript manipulation (S family, Stata)
        * Recording and saving transcript files

        * Manipulating and editing saved transcripts

        * Re-evaluating commands from transcript files

   * Interaction with Help Pages and other Documenation (R)
        * Fast Navigation

        * Sending Examples to running ESS process.

        * Fast Transfer to Further Help Pages

   * Help File Editing (R)
        * Syntactic indentation and highlighting of source code.

        * Sending Examples to running ESS process.

        * Previewing

1.3 Requirements
================

ESS is most likely to work with current/recent versions of the following
statistical packages: R/S-PLUS, SAS, Stata, OpenBUGS and JAGS.

   ESS supports current, and recent, stable versions of GNU Emacs
(currently, specifically, the 23.x and 24.x series;
alpha/beta/pre-release versions are NOT SUPPORTED).  Due to XEmacs
lacking some features that ESS requires, ESS support of XEmacs ends
with ESS 12.04-4.  This decision will be re-visited in the future as
XEmacs continues to sync with GNU Emacs.

   To build the PDF documentation, you will need a version of TeX Live
or texinfo that includes texi2dvi (BEWARE: recent TeX Live, and some
texinfo RPMs, do NOT include texi2dvi).

1.4 Stability
=============

All recent released versions are meant to be release-quality versions.
While some new features are being introduced, we are cleaning up and
improving the interface.  We know that there are many remaining
opportunities for documentation improvements, but all contributors are
volunteers and time is precious. Patches or suggested fixes with bug
reports are much appreciated!

1.5 Mailing List
================

There is a mailing list for discussions and announcements relating to
ESS.  Join the list by sending an e-mail with "subscribe ess-help" (or
"help") in the body to <ess-help-request at stat.math.ethz.ch>;
contributions to the list may be mailed to
<ess-help at stat.math.ethz.ch>.  Rest assured, this is a fairly
low-volume mailing list.

   The purposes of the mailing list include

   *  helping users of ESS to get along with it.

   *  discussing aspects of using ESS on Emacs and XEmacs.

   *  suggestions for improvements.

   *  announcements of new releases of ESS.

   *  posting small patches to ESS.

1.6 Reporting Bugs
==================

Please send bug reports, suggestions etc. to
<ESS-bugs at stat.math.ethz.ch>

   The easiest way to do this is within Emacs by typing

   `M-x ess-submit-bug-report'

   This also gives the maintainers valuable information about your
installation which may help us to identify or even fix the bug.

   If Emacs reports an error, backtraces can help us debug the problem.
Type "M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET".  Then run the
command that causes the error and you should see a *Backtrace* buffer
containing debug information; send us that buffer.

   Note that comments, suggestions, words of praise and large cash
donations are also more than welcome.

1.7 Authors
===========

   * A.J. Rossini (mailto:blindglobe at gmail.com)

   * Richard M. Heiberger (mailto:rmh at temple.edu)

   * Kurt Hornik (mailto:Kurt.Hornik at R-project.org)

   * Martin Maechler (mailto:maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch)

   * Rodney A. Sparapani (mailto:rsparapa at mcw.edu)

   * Stephen Eglen (mailto:stephen at gnu.org)

   * Sebastian P. Luque (mailto:spluque at gmail.com)

   * Henning Redestig (mailto:henning.red at googlemail.com)

   * Vitalie Spinu (mailto:spinuvit at gmail.com)

1.8 License
===========

The source and documentation of ESS is free software.  You can
redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 2, or (at your option) any later version.

   ESS is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
in the file COPYING in the same directory as this file for more details.

1.9 New Features
================

Changes/New Features in 13.05:
   * ESS[gretl]: Support for `gretl' (both editing and sub-process
     interaction). A contribution of Ahmadou Dicko.

   * ESS: process output display is 4-10 times faster due to new caching
     and only occasional emacs re-display (for the moment this
     functionality is available only when `ess-tracebug' is active).

   * ESS: `C-c `' is now bound to `ess-show-traceback' and `C-c ~' is
     bound to `ess-show-call-stack'.

   * ESS[R]: ESS stores function in 'ESSR' environment to avoid
     kludging users' global environment and accidental deletion.

   * ESS[R]: new variable `ess-swv-processing-command' to control
     weaving and tangling.

   * ESS[R]: `ess-default-style' has been changed  (from `DEFAULT') to
     `RRR'.  Use something like  `(setq ess-default-style 'DEFAULT)' or
     `(setq ess-indent-level 2)' in your `~/.emacs' equivalent
     _before_ loading ESS, if you do not like this new "incompatible"
     default style.

   * ESS[julia]: ESS stores its functions in 'ESS' module.

   * ESS[julia]: Eldoc is now supported in julia modes

   * ESS[julia]: Adjusted error reference detection and interactive help
     to julia internal changes

   * ESS[R]: `ess-use-tracebug''s default has been changed to  `t'. Set
     it to nil if you want to keep the previous behavior.

   * ESS[tracebug]: Electric debug keys have been removed [breaking
     change] The functionality was replaced with `ess-debug-minor-mode'
     and `ess-debug-minor-mode-map'.

   * ESS[tracebug]: `ess-tracebug-map' is an alias to  `ess-dev-map'
     `C-c C-t'.

   * ESS[tracebug]: `ess-bp-toggle-state' (`C-c C-t o')  can now be
     used during the debug session to toggle breakpoints on the fly
     (suggestion by Ross Boylan).

   * ESS[tracebug]: `ess-debug-flag-for-debugging' and
     `ess-debug-unflag-for-debugging' work correctly from the debugging
     contexts. These commands also recognize non-exported functions for
     the  packages listed in `ess-developer-packages' (`C-c C-t C-a').

   * ESS[R]: Eldoc (activated by `ess-use-eldoc') has  become more
     sophisticated, and hence also more intruding in the interface
     between the Statistics softare, e.g., R, and the user.

     Note that you can turn off ElDoc, by placing `(setq ess-use-eldoc
     nil)'  in your `~/.emacs' file, prior to loading ESS,

   * ESS[SAS]: long over-looked `SAS-mode-hook' appears!

   * ESS[SAS]: `ess-sas-edit-keys-toggle' now defaults to `t' since
     `sas-indent-line' is still broken, i.e. `TAB' is now bound to
     `ess-sas-tab-to-tab-stop' by default

   Changes/Bug Fixes in 12.09-2:
   * ESS: new `ess-switch-to-end-of-proc-buffer' variable that controls
     whether `C-c C-z' switches to the end of process buffer. The
     default is `t'. You can use prefix argument to `C-c C-z' to
     toggle this variable.

   * ESS: fix in `ess-eval-linewise' that was causing emacs to hang
     during R debugging with `ess-eval-visibly' equal to `t'.

   * ESS: fix in `ess-eval-linewise' that was causing emacs to recenter
     the prompt in visible window

   * ESS[tracebug]: A better handling of "Selection" prompts and debug
     related singlekey commands.

   * ESS: fix a bug in `ess-switch-process' that was causing `*new*'
     selection to fail.

   * ESS[R]: Solve missing `ess-local-process-name' bug in R-dired.

   * ESS[SWV]: `ess-swv-PDF' doesn't ask for a command to run if there
     is only one command in `ess-swv-pdflatex-commands'.

   * ESS[SWV]: `ess-swv-weave' gained an universal argument to allow
     for an interactive choice between available weavers (sweave,
     knitr).

   * ESS: `ess-eval-*-and-step' functions go to next empty line at eob,
     instead of staying at the last line.

   Changes/New Features in 12.09-1:
   * ESS _Breaking Changes in Keys_:

        - New keymaps: `ess-doc-map' bound to `C-c C-d';
          `ess-extra-map' bound to `C-c C-e';
          `ess-dump-object-into-edit-buffer' was moved on `C-c C-e C-d'

        - roxygen map was moved on `C-c C-o' and
          `ess-roxy-update-entry' now resides on `C-c C-o C-o'

        - ess-handy-commands is not bound anymore

        - `ess-dev-map' (including `ess-tracebug' and `ess-developer')
          moved on `C-c C-t'

        - `C-c C-y' is deprecated in favor of `C-c C-z C-z'

   * ESS[R] new command `ess-describe-object-at-point' bound to `C-c
     C-d C-e' (repeat `C-e' or `e' to cycle). It was inspired by Erik
     Iverson's `ess-R-object-tooltip'. Customize
     `ess-describe-at-point-method' to use tooltip instead of an
     electric buffer.

   * ESS: New command `ess-build-tags-for-directory' bound to `C-c C-e
     C-t' for building dialect specific tag tables. After building tags
     use `M-.' to navigate to function and objects definitions. By
     default `C-c C-e C-t' builds tags based on imenu regular
     expressions and also include other common languages `.c, .o, .cpp'
     etc. But it relies on external `find' and `etags' commands. If
     `ess-build-tags-command' is defined (for `R'), the inferior
     process is asked to build tags instead.

   * ESS: `ess-switch-process' offers `*new*' alternative to start a
     new process instead of switching to one of the currently running
     processes.

   * ESS: Switching between processes (`C-c C-s') uses buffer names
     instead of the internal process names. Use `M-x rename-buffer'
     command to conveniently rename your process buffers.

   * ESS: Process buffers can be automatically named on process creation
     according to user specified scheme. Default schemes are *proc*,
     *proc:dir* and *proc:abbr-long-dir* where `proc' stands for the
     internal process name and `dir' stands for the directory where the
     process was started in. The default is *proc*. For customization
     see `ess-gen-proc-buffer-name-function'.

   * ESS: `ess-eval-visibly-p' is deprecated in favor of
     `ess-eval-visibly'.

   * ESS: New evaluation pattern `nowait'.  In addition to old `nil'
     and `t' values, `ess-eval-visibly' accepts `nowait' for a visible
     evaluation with no waiting for the process. See `ess-eval-visibly'
     for details on evaluation patterns.

   * ESS: New "Process" menu entry with process related commands and
     configuration

   * iESS: Process buffer is now automatically shown on errors

   * ESS: New `ess-switch-to-inferior-or-script-buffer' command bound
     to `C-c C-z' in both script and process buffers. If invoked form
     process buffer it switches to the most recent buffer of the same
     dialect. It is a single key command.

   * ESSR-help:  On multiple help pages with the same name, `C-c C-v'
     now asks for user resolution directly in emacs.

   * ESS[R] ess-roxy: new variable `ess-roxy-re' for fontification of
     cases where the number of leading `#' differs from `ess-roxy-str'.

   * ESS[R] Eldoc was considerably enhanced.  It now finds hidden
     default S3 methods and displays non-default methods' arguments
     after trailing ||.

   * ESS[R]: New `ess-display-demos' command bound to `C-c C-d o' and
     `C-c C-d C-o'

   * ESS: New `ess-help-web-search' command bound to `C-c C-d w' and
     `C-c C-d C-w' to facilitate interactive search of web resources.
     Implemented for `R', `Stata' and `Julia'. See also
     `ess-help-web-search-command'.

   * ESS: ess-pdf-viewer-pref accepts now command line arguments

   * ESS[Rnw]: Add knitr support.  Customize `ess-swv-processor' for
     the default processor.

   * ESS[Rnw]: More thorough renaming of remaining `noweb-*' to
     `ess-noweb-*'.

   * ESS[Rnw] new commands `ess-eval-chunk-and-step' and
     `ess-eval-chunk' bound to `M-n C-c' and `M-n C-M-x' to mirror
     standard ess commands in C-c map.

   * ESS[R] Auto-completion: new variable `ess-ac-R-argument-suffix' to
     customize the insertion of trailing "=". Defaults to " = ".

   * ESS[Julia]: Added index, apropos and web-search to julia.

   * ESS help: More evaluation commands were added to ess-help mode
     (`C-c C-c', `C-M-x' etc)

   Bug Fixes in 12.09-1:
   * iESShelp: Multiple help pages with the same name are properly
     handled on `C-c C-v'

   * iESSremote: Evaluation with ESS remote no longer freezes emacs.

   * iESS: `comint-previous-prompt' `C-c C-p' no longer stops on
     secondary prompt "+".

   * iESS[R], iESS(Sqpe) [S] on Windows: The `options("editor")' is now
     initialized to `emacsclient' instead of the previous `gnuclient'.
     The user may need to add the line `(server-start)' to the emacs
     initialization file. `emacsclient' has been included with emacs
     since GNU Emacs 22.1.

   * ESS[Rnw] Fixed "connection to R" bug (in 12.09 only).

   * ESS[Rnw] Explicit `ess-swv-stangle' and `ess-swv-sweave' functions.

   * ESS[Rnw] Fixed completion and smart underscore problems cause by
     unmatched "\"'

   * ESS[R] is more careful with the `R' code injection.  It now
     happens only once at the start of the session.

   * ESS[R]: Fixed auto-scrolling the comint buffer on evaluation.

   * ESS[Julia]: Solve several indentation and word navigation problems.

   * ESS[Julia]: Help system works again.

   Changes/New Features in 12.09:

   * Due to XEmacs lacking some features that ESS requires, ESS support
     of XEmacs ends with ESS 12.04-4.  This decision will be re-visited
     in the future as XEmacs continues to sync with GNU Emacs.

   * ESS[R]: On Windows, there is now a new customizable variable
     (currently called `ess-directory-containing-R') to tell ESS where
     to look for the `Rterm.exe' executables.  The name of the variable
     and the values it can take are both in beta and subject to change.
     Prior to this variable, ESS searched only in the default
     installation directory.  Setting this variable now tells ESS how
     to find `Rterm.exe' executables when they are installed somewhere
     else.

   * ESS[julia]: _new_ mode for editing julia code (`*.jl'). Start with
     `M-x julia'.

     Full interaction interface, imenu and basic error referencing are
     available.

   * ESS[R] noweb: `noweb-mode' and `noweb-font-lock-mode' have been
     renamed to `ess-noweb-mode' and `ess-noweb-font-lock-mode' to
     avoid conflicts with the "real" `noweb-mode'.

   * ESS[R] noweb: The long standing font-lock bug has been solved in
     `ess-noweb' interface.

   * ESS: Basic evaluation keys are now bound to `ess-eval-region-*-'
     functions:

        - `C-M-x' is bound to `ess-eval-region-or-function-or-paragraph'

        - `C-c C-c' is bound to
          `ess-eval-region-or-function-or-paragraph-and-step'

        - `C-RET' is bound to `ess-eval-region-or-line-and-step'

     Each of these functions first evaluates the region whenever the
     region is active.

   * ESS: `C-M-a'/`C-M-e' now step to beginning/end of paragraph if no
     function has been detected.

   * ESS: `ess-eval-*-and-step' family of functions are now smarter,
     and don't step to end of buffer or end of chunk code (`@') when at
     the end of the code.

   * ESS: `ess-handy-commands' function is bound to `C-c h'

   * ESS: ESS is now _blinking_  the evaluated region.  Set
     `ess-blink-region' to nil to deactivate; `ess-blink-delay' gives
     the duration of the blink. Evaluated region is "blinked" in
     `highlight' face.

   * ESS[R-help]  New key `a' for "apropos()" in help buffers. Also
     available through `C-c h'.

   * ESS[R-help]  All R commands of type foo?bar and foo??bar are
     recognized and redirected into appropriate *ESS-help* buffers.

   * ESS[R]: New customization interface for _font-lock_.

     ESS font-lock operates with predefined keywords. Default keywords
     are listed in `ess-R-font-lock-keywords' and
     `inferior-R-font-lock-keywords', which see. The user can easily
     customize those by adding new keywords. These variables can also be
     interactively accessed and saved through `ESS/Font-lock' submenu.

     Several new fontification keywords have been added. Most notably
     the keywords for highlighting of function calls, numbers and
     operators.

   * ESS[R]: auto-complete is now activated by default whenever
     auto-complete package is detected. Set `ess-use-auto-complete' to
     nil to deactivate.

   * ESS[R]: R AC sources are no longer auto-starting at 0 characters
     but at the default `ac-auto-start' characters.

   * ESS no longer redefines default ac-sources, but only appends
     `ac-source-filename' to it.

   * ESS: `ac-source-R' now concatenates " = " to function arguments.

   * ESS: Menus for ESS and iESS have been reorganized and enriched with
     _Tracebug_ and _Developer_ submenus.

   * ESS[R]: `ess-developer' and `ess-tracebug' commands are available
     by default in `ess-dev-map' which is bound to `C-c d' in ESS and
     iESS maps.

   * ESS[R]: `eldoc' truncates long lines whenever
     `eldoc-echo-area-use-multiline-p' is non-nil (the default). Set
     this variable to t if you insist on multiline eldoc.  See also
     `ess-eldoc-abbreviation-style'.

   * ESS[R]: completion code pre-caches arguments of heavy generics
     such as `plot' and `print' to eliminated the undesirable delay on
     first request.

   * iESS: Prompts in inferior buffers are now highlighted uniformly
     with `comint-highlight-prompt' face.

   * ESS[R]: R process no longer wait for the completion of input in
     inferior buffer.  Thus, long running commands like `Sys.sleep(5)'
     no longer stall emacs.

   * ESS: [R, S, Stata, Julia] have specialized `ess-X-post-run-hook's,
     which are run at the end of subprocess initialization.

   * ESS[Stata]: All interactive evaluation commands work as expected.
     On-line comments are removed before the evaluation and multiline
     comments are skipped on `C-c C-c' and other interactive commands.

   * ESS no longer auto-connects to a subprocess with a different
     dialect than the current buffer's one.

   * ESS: `ess-arg-function-offset-new-line' is now a list for all the
     ESS indentation styles, which results in the following indentation
     after an open "(":

       a <- some.function(other.function(
          arg1,
          arg2)

   * ESS[SAS]: Improved MS RTF support for GNU Emacs; try
     `ess-sas-rtf-portrait' and `ess-sas-rtf-landscape'.



>>>>> Rodney Sparapani <rsparapa at mcw.edu>
>>>>>     on Thu, 9 May 2013 08:27:14 -0500 writes:

    > Hi!
    > We, the developers of ESS, are planning to release ESS 13.05 next week.
    > This is a good time for the brave beta testers among you to try it out.
    > You can find out how to install the development version at
    > http://ess.r-project.org/index.php?Section=download

    > There are several new/improved features which you can see at
    > http://ess.r-project.org/Manual/ess.html#New-features

    > Two of the new/improved features in particular are ElDoc and tracebug.
    > You can find more information about ElDoc at
    > http://ess.r-project.org/Manual/ess.html#ESS-ElDoc

    > Note that you can turn off ElDoc, by placing this in your ~/.emacs
    > file {prior to (require 'ess-site) }:
    > (setq ess-use-eldoc nil)

    > You can find more information about tracebug at
    > http://ess.r-project.org/Manual/ess.html#ESS-tracebug

    > You can toggle tracebug off/on via issuing the following command:
    > M-x ess-tracebug

    > If you find any problems, then please report them here.  Thanks

    > -- 
    > Rodney Sparapani, PhD  Center for Patient Care and Outcomes Research
    > Sr. Biostatistician               http://www.mcw.edu/pcor
    > 4 wheels good, 2 wheels better!   Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW)
    > WWLD?:  What Would Lombardi Do?   Milwaukee, WI, USA

    > ______________________________________________
    > ESS-help at r-project.org mailing list
    > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/ess-help



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