[Rd] Is it advisable/possible to default on Linux to an EDITOR that actually exists?

[Michael Chirico]

I do agree we're probably spending more time on this than it's worth
so feel free to let it die here :)

>  "If on systems that don't have all tools, maybe don't call functions from package `usethis`"

What I have in mind here is (1) less experienced users who (2) are
running in environments handed to them which were (3) set up by
someone (e.g. an instructor) who either wasn't aware of this issue
(seems likely) or didn't anticipate their users trying to edit files
from R (e.g. because they are set up in an IDE like VSCode). This user
is particularly prone to getting stuck on an issue where R throws a
vague warning while the "real error" is hidden within other output and
doesn't take a form they're used to (a shell error instead of an R
error).

There are other packages besides {usethis} which can apparently run
file.edit():

https://github.com/search?q=org%3Acran+lang%3AR+%2F%5Cn%5B%5E%23%5Cn%5D*%5B%5E+%5Cw%3A%5D%5Cs*file%5B.%5Dedit%5B%28%5D%28%5B%5E%5C%5C%5D%7C%5B%5E%27%5D%7C%5B%27%5D%5B%5E%22%7B%5D%7C%5B%5E%22%5D%7C%5B%22%5D%5B%5E%27%7B%5D%29%2F+-path%3A.Rd&type=code

Hence looking for an improvement directly by file.edit() rather than
relying on its caller to do the check.

OTOH, I first raised the issue thinking "oh we can just check
Sys.which()", which turns out to be not so simple given file.edit()'s
OS-dependent implementation/behavior. Therefore we might be best just
ignoring this.

Mike C

On Sat, Dec 14, 2024 at 4:02 AM Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd using debian.org> wrote:
>
>
> On 11 December 2024 at 15:00, Michael Chirico wrote:
> | Thanks Simon, I didn't know that! That's definitely a compelling
> | reason to leave the current default untouched and to eschew any
> | finicky attempts to find back-up editors.
>
> I am not sure I agree with the fairly bold statement by Simon. I do not
> install or use that many different Unix flavours but I do come across some
> that do not, by default, install vi
>
>   $ docker run --rm -ti debian bash
>   root using 54d4be543766:/# vi
>   bash: vi: command not found
>   root using 54d4be543766:/#
>   root using 54d4be543766:/# nano
>   bash: nano: command not found
>   exit
>   $
>
> Distributions may have defined sets of packages deemed 'essential', editors
> do not seem to be part of that here.
>
> Anyway, when you are calling edit(), or call a function calling edit() you
> can always override appropriately with both an environment variable or an R
> option so this all seems like a nothingburger to me.  "If on systems that
> don't have all tools, maybe don't call functions from package `usethis`"
> (which makes reasonable assumptions about what could be present) also seems
> like a valid strategy.
>
> Dirk
>
> --
> dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd using debian.org