[R] Startup Files (RProfile) and R-Aqua

[Thomas Lumley]

On Sun, 30 Jan 2005, Thomas Hopper wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'm having some difficulty understanding the documentation relative to the 
> startup files with R-Aqua 2.0.1 for Mac OS X.
>
> Specifically, I'm wondering: where does R search for the startup files (my 
> home directory at Users:<me>:?);

Yes.

> how should they be named (.RProfile will be 
> treated by Mac OS X as a system file and be hidden, so I'm wondering if it 
> should just be RProfile)?

No, it should be .Rprofile

>		 I can't find this platform-specific information in 
> any of the documentation.

That's because it isn't actually platform-specific.  OS X is like other 
Unix flavours in this respect.

> As a related issue, where would I store my home-grown functions? Would 
> RProfile be a good place to keep them?

Not especially, though there isn't anything really wrong with it.  You 
could also save() them in a binary file and load that file in your 
.Rprofile, or put them in a package.

Putting them in a package allows them to have documentation accessed with 
help().

Putting them in .Rprofile probably makes it harder to edit your functions, 
and it certainly makes it harder to separate functions for different 
purposes.


 	-thomas