[R] Best R text editors?
Ramon Diaz-Uriarte
rdiaz02 at gmail.com
Fri Sep 11 17:11:55 CEST 2009
Ted, I think I share your feelings about mice (e.g., that is why I use
window managers where the mouse is not needed or is actually
discouraged) but ...
On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 4:46 PM, Ted Harding
<Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk> wrote:
> On 11-Sep-09 14:16:44, Clint Bowman wrote:
>> On Fri, 11 Sep 2009, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
>>
>>> 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
>>
>> Ahh, just Ted's point--mice have three buttons (unless they are
>> connected to Apples).
>>
>> Clint
>
> Well, not really!! My point (and certainly Charles Curran's point)
> is that in touch-typing you know by proprioception and neuromuscular
> coordination where your fingers are relative to the keys on the
> keyboard, and what key you will press next, without looking; and
> you can accurately press several keys in rapid succession -- just
> as a pianist can play an arpeggio without looking.
>
> But "touch-mousing" isn't just knowing where the mouse itself is,
> nor the buttons. It would involve knowing from the sensations of
> moving the mouse where the mouse-pointer was on the screen, without
> looking, and also what graphic element (icon, on-screen button,
> tab in a drop-down menu) the mouse was over, also without looking.
>
> You can type accurately and rapidly withnout looking at the keyboard.
> You can't use a mouse with closely and accurately observing where
> the mouse-pointer is in the GUI. You can touch type. You can't
It is here that I disagree: if the idea is "typing without looking at
the keyboard", then the correct analogy seems to me to be "moving the
mouse around without looking at the mouse". And the later is certainly
doable.
(OK, you can type without looking at the keyboard AND without looking
at your monitor, such as when copying or translating, and that is not
feasible with mice).
> touch-mouse. (Unless you have one of those "accessibility" add-ons
> for the visually impaired, where a "SatNav" voice tells you what
> the mouse is over, and what is written in the tab from the drop-down
> menu).
>
> Also, the ocasionnal misstake in typing is usually fairly harmless.
> Mistakes in mousing can be catastrophic. However, when one is typing
Hummm... I am not sure that is a fair comparison either: certain mouse
actions can be bound to some catastrophic actions. But I could have a
command called "er" (e.g., ERase absolutely everything), which does
something equally catastrophic and accidentally type that instead of
"df".
The problem there is not in the mouse or the keyboard, but somewhere else.
Best,
R.
> program code then of course one needs to scrutinise it carefully.
> Even then, a typo usually results in an error message, rarely in
> a disaster. A "mouso", however, will (almost by definition) result
> in the execution of a correctly coded procedure. Tough luck if it's
> the wrong one.
>
> Ted.
>
>>>> 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.
>>>>
>>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk>
>>>> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
>>>> Date: 11-Sep-09 Time: 11:53:09
>>>> ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> ______________________________________________
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>>>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
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>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
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>>>
>>
>> --
>> Clint Bowman INTERNET: clint at ecy.wa.gov
>> Air Quality Modeler INTERNET: clint at math.utah.edu
>> Department of Ecology VOICE: (360) 407-6815
>> PO Box 47600 FAX: (360) 407-7534
>> Olympia, WA 98504-7600
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk>
> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
> Date: 11-Sep-09 Time: 15:46:03
> ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
--
Ramon Diaz-Uriarte
Structural Biology and Biocomputing Programme
Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO)
http://ligarto.org/rdiaz
Phone: +34-91-732-8000 ext. 3019
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