[R] Best R text editors?

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 11/09/2009 6:53 AM, (Ted Harding) wrote:
> On 11-Sep-09 10:41:21, Jim Lemon wrote:
>> On 09/11/2009 05:15 PM, Patrick Connolly wrote:
>>> ...
>>> |>  and in previous versions, you could always do M-x cua-mode for
>>> |>  the same effect. Talk about a well-hidden function mostly directed
>>> |>  at beginners ...
>>>
>>> Perhaps the thinking was that by the time they find it, they'll
>>> already have noticed that they can cut/copy and paste using only the
>>> mouse buttons and won't be bothered with such inefficient methods.
>>>
>>> Though this be madness, yet there is a method in't. :-)
>>>    
>> Well, okay, let's look at it from the viewpoint of learning theory. We 
>> expect that if someone has learned a skill, they will prefer to engage 
>> in other behaviors where they can successfully use that skill. Upon
>> this 
>> easily understood foundation rest the fortunes of many. Thus two of 
>> those entities, let us call them A and M for the purposes of
>> discussion, 
>> spend a great deal of time and effort attempting to differentiate their
>> interfaces from each other so that having trained their users, those 
>> users will be reluctant to switch to the competitor. However, they must
>> remain similar enough so that the switch from the competitor is not 
>> impossible. Such is the dispiriting triumph of form over substance in 
>> interface design. Both have yet to abandon such atavists as myself who 
>> prefer to type rather than fiddle with a pointing device, though they 
>> try hard to convert us. A somewhat smaller organization that I will 
>> label G seems to have decided that it can build a user base by sticking
>> to the arcane typoglyphics of the VT-100 era and enticing the largely 
>> amoral digirati with moral suasion. Now that's madness.
>>
>> Jim
> 
> Once again, I cannot resist citing the immortal quote (from Charles
> Curran, of the UK Unix Users Group):
> 
>   "I can touch-type, but I can't touch-mouse"

That's a strange disability.  It took me several months to learn to 
touch-type (and years later I'm still not very good at the top-row 
numbers or the special symbols on them), but I memorized the location of 
the two buttons on my mouse in no time at all.

Duncan Murdoch

> 
> Originally posted on Wed Nov 17 13:48:14 2004, in the context of an
> extended discussion (still relevant to the present thread):
> 
>   http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/Rhelp02/archive/41560.html
> 
> Best wishes to all,
> Ted.
> 
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> E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk>
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> Date: 11-Sep-09                                       Time: 11:53:09
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