bug(?) in R FAQ - Should I run R from within Emacs? (PR#1772)

[Tim.Harrold@csiro.au]

I have a small request re.

R FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions on R
Version 1.5-10, 2002-06-13
ISBN 3-901167-51-X
Kurt Hornik


In section 6.2 Should I run R from within Emacs? The faq says

"Yes, definitely." 

This led me to install emacs, and to install ess. However, I use a windows
environment (mswindows2000) and I had some difficulty installing, linking
and launching these applications. After several hours I had launched emacs
but had failed to link it with either ess or r, partly because of platform
problems. (As a dedicated windows user, I am reluctant to tinker with
autoexec.bat and the like).

I spent several hours doing this, and in hindsight, I decided to uninstall
emacs and ess.
 
I would prefer if the faq could be changed to say:

"This is optional."

And perhaps some comment could be made about platforms. I found the
documentation for emacs and ess to be a bit of a hair-pulling exercise. NOT
one of the "plug and play" applications that MS windows is so fond of! 

By the way, I like the r gui very much. I used splus for some time as a PhD
student, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that my scripts run in r!! I
intend to use r from now onwards, and to encourage my colleagues to use it
too.

Kind regards,

Tim Harrold
CSIRO Atmospheric Research
107 Station Street Aspendale Vic 3195
Phone: 03 9239 4411  Fax: 03 9239 4688
Home: 03 9571 2736
email tim.harrold@csiro.au
"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good."
Psalm 106:1 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
r-devel mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html
Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe"
(in the "body", not the subject !)  To: r-devel-request@stat.math.ethz.ch
_._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._