[R] Syntax coloring in R console

Fri Apr 1 17:39:15 CEST 2011

Please move this thread off r-help. It's about Rstudio, not R.

-- Bert

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 8:05 AM, January Weiner
<january.weiner at mpiib-berlin.mpg.de> wrote:
> Dear Liviu,
>
> thanks for the programming tip! However, I do all my editing in vim,
> which has had syntax highlighting for quite a while, as well as
> auto-completion and a number of other goodies. But while I do most of
> my programing in vim, I do most of my scientific studies simply using
> the R interface and keeping a manually edited "lab book" apart from
> the scripts. Clearly, one can do as much with Rstudio -- I just don't
> see any advantages, but I do see a disadvantage in my specific case:
> all sub-windows are confined to the "desktop". In other words, having
> multiple plots on one monitor and a terminal with R command line is
> not possible.
>
> A question, though. Given that I have projects assorted in various
> directories, how can I start RStudio opening a project stored in
> .RData and .Rhistory of a given directory? I.e., how can I make
> RStudio open the current directory (like R does), and not $HOME?
>
> Thanks nonetheless,
>
> j.
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 4:20 PM, Liviu Andronic <landronimirc at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 3:48 PM, January Weiner
>> <january.weiner at mpiib-berlin.mpg.de> wrote:
>>> RStudio might be a fine program, but it does not feature syntax
>>> highlighting, which is the only thing I am missing from R Console (it
>>> only colors the commands typed).
>>>
>> The idea is that you shouldn't use the R console for you main
>> programming needs, but only for quick and dirty checks. For the bulk
>> of programming tasks you are invited to use the integrated editor
>> (File > New > Script). The editor window does feature syntax
>> highlighting, and a very helpful completion mechanism (via <tab>).
>> Sending lines for execution to the terminal is as easy as clicking
>> 'run lines' or ctrl+enter. If you're not a fan of keeping scripts for
>> your projects you can easily use temporary files that you don't save.
>>
>>
>>> Moreover, the very idea of squeezing
>>> all R windows into one "window-desktop" would be counterproductive in
>>> my particular case.
>>>
>> Notice that all panes are freely resizable and can be resized to the
>> point of becoming hidden. Future releases will give more control over
>> the panes layout (I think).
>>
>> Regards
>> Liviu
>>
>>
>>> Thank you anyways!
>>>
>>> j.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> [1] http://alternativeto.net/software/rstudio/about
>>>>
>>>> Regards
>>>> Liviu
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> I tried JGR, the GUI for R, but I have found the following problems
>>>>> with this package:
>>>>>
>>>>> - I was not able to change the background color from a repulsive grey,
>>>>> - apparently, GNU readline is not implemented in that package, that
>>>>> is, there is no functionality similar to ctrl-r (which searches
>>>>> through the history for matching commands), something I use
>>>>> frequently, and
>>>>> - tab expansion is of limited use (e.g. doesn't browse files in the
>>>>> current directory when expanding quoted arguments e.g. in
>>>>> "read.table").
>>>>>
>>>>> All in all, I'd be happy to continue using the plain R console, but
>>>>> syntax highlighting would be nice. Any advice would be extremely
>>>>> welcome.
>>>>>
>>>>> Kind regards,
>>>>>
>>>>> January
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> sessionInfo()
>>>>> R version 2.12.2 (2011-02-25)
>>>>> Platform: i486-pc-linux-gnu (32-bit)
>>>>>
>>>>> locale:
>>>>>  [1] LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8       LC_NUMERIC=C
>>>>> LC_TIME=en_US.utf8        LC_COLLATE=en_US.utf8     LC_MONETARY=C
>>>>>  [6] LC_MESSAGES=en_US.utf8    LC_PAPER=en_US.utf8       LC_NAME=C
>>>>>            LC_ADDRESS=C              LC_TELEPHONE=C
>>>>> [11] LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.utf8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C
>>>>>
>>>>> attached base packages:
>>>>> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>>
>>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>>> 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.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Do you know how to read?
>>>> http://www.alienetworks.com/srtest.cfm
>>>> http://goodies.xfce.org/projects/applications/xfce4-dict#speed-reader
>>>> Do you know how to write?
>>>> http://garbl.home.comcast.net/~garbl/stylemanual/e.htm#e-mail
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> -------- Dr. January Weiner 3 --------------------------------------
>>> Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology
>>> Charitéplatz 1
>>> D-10117 Berlin, Germany
>>> Web   : www.mpiib-berlin.mpg.de
>>> Tel     : +49-30-28460514
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> 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.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Do you know how to read?
>> http://www.alienetworks.com/srtest.cfm
>> http://goodies.xfce.org/projects/applications/xfce4-dict#speed-reader
>> Do you know how to write?
>> http://garbl.home.comcast.net/~garbl/stylemanual/e.htm#e-mail
>>
>
>
>
> --
> -------- Dr. January Weiner 3 --------------------------------------
> Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology
> Charitéplatz 1
> D-10117 Berlin, Germany
> Web   : www.mpiib-berlin.mpg.de
> Tel     : +49-30-28460514
>
> ______________________________________________
> 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.
>

-- 
"Men by nature long to get on to the ultimate truths, and will often
be impatient with elementary studies or fight shy of them. If it were
possible to reach the ultimate truths without the elementary studies
usually prefixed to them, these would not be preparatory studies but
superfluous diversions."

-- Maimonides (1135-1204)

Bert Gunter
Genentech Nonclinical Biostatistics