[R] Workspaces & Memory Requirements

[Dilip N. Thadani]

Can someone explain memory and workspaces in R.  For example, I read in the
FAQ (or somewhere) that in R, the entire workspace is loaded into memory.

So if I use and save many data frames or matrices in my workspace, are all
of these objects getting loaded into memory each time?  If so this is very
inconvenient if one wants to store data in matrices on an ongoing basis but
not use them everytime one uses R.

So how should one manage objects in R.  Should one be using multiple
workspaces or should one write a couple of functions that dump objects out
into text files and then source them back before use and so on.

Is the new dynamic memory model upcoming in the next release of R going to
also read all objects in a workspace into RAM?

Also, how do I take all of my user written R functions and make them into a
library so that they can be accessible from any workspace?  And can these
functions be edited and saved on the fly into the library?

Can someone shed some light on these issues?  As a previous S user, I m used
to having a large number of data objects in the _Data directory.

Thanks in advance.

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