[R] .Rdata files -- fortune?

[Rolf Turner]

On 12/03/15 19:38, PIKAL Petr wrote:

<SNIP>
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 09:00:15AM -0400, Prof J C Nash (U30A) wrote:

<SNIP>

>> Personally I think that auto saving / restoring workspaces should be
>> reviewed, as it can, in practice, make it harder for people to render
>> their work in a self-contained and reproducible way.

> If this is considered I would beg for addind an option to keep
> autosave work for those who have different approach. If you keep the
> paradigm one project = one separate directory there shall be no
> problem with autosaving as you have only one Rdata file together with
> exported pictures, pdfs, xls and doc files.
>
> If you save history to separate files you can also easily keep track
> of your work. If autosave is disabled and you could leave your
> session without warning I bet that there would be hundereds of
> questions similar to:
>
> I worked whole day and after quitting R all my work is lost.

*Very* well put.

I very much advocate keeping the current system as-is.  There is nothing 
at all wrong with .RData files as long as you understand the concept of 
"workspace" and "global environment" --- i.e. as long as you understand 
WTF you're doing.  And if you don't understand, you shouldn't be doing it.

cheers,

Rolf Turner

-- 
Rolf Turner
Technical Editor ANZJS
Department of Statistics
University of Auckland
Phone: +64-9-373-7599 ext. 88276
Home phone: +64-9-480-4619