[R] Is there a way to open R terminal running in the background

[Brad P]

Hello,

I am working on a GUI, which is working well so far.
I am working on a Windows 7 machine with 64 bit R (Microsoft R Open 3.3.2)

Essentially:
1) a VBS executable is used to open the GUI leaving the R terminal running
in the background but not showing using:

CreateObject("Wscript.Shell").Run R.exe CMD BATCH MyGUI.R , 0, TRUE

2) for the GUI I use code similar to that shown below

My question is, when the GUI is opened, an instance of R runs in the
background.
Is there a way to show ('open') that R terminal?  And similarly put it back
as invisible.
I am imagining that I can write an R function to either open this directly
or by using Windows OS commands

I have found  a way to open a terminal using the code at this link, but it
is not ideal (I want an actual R terminal):
http://freesourcecode.net/rprojects/104/sourcecode/ex-RGtk2-terminal.R



# MyGUI.R ##################################################################
library(RGtk2)

# initiate main window
main_window <<- gtkWindow(show = FALSE)
main_window["title"] <- "My GUI"
main_window$setDefaultSize(800, 600) # (width, height)

# problem: red [X] in top-right leaves underlying R instance open
main_window$deletable <- FALSE  # makes the top-right [X] delete option not
work ...
# Can this button be reprogrammed??

# function to read in data file
open_cb <- function(widget, window) {
  dialog <- gtkFileChooserDialog("Choose a CSV file", window, "open",
                                 "gtk-cancel", GtkResponseType["cancel"],
"gtk-open",
                                 GtkResponseType["accept"])
  if (dialog$run() == GtkResponseType["accept"]) {
    fileName <<- dialog$getFilename()
    dat <<- read.csv(fileName, header=TRUE, na.strings=c("","NA"))
  }
  dialog$destroy()
  statusbar$push(info, paste("Dataset", fileName, "is currently loaded."))
}

# variable to indicate whether it is time to stop R
StopNOW <<- 0

quit_cb <- function(widget, window){
  StopNOW <<- 1
  window$destroy()
  quit(save = "no")
}

# Lists actions in dropdown or toolbar menus
actions <- list(
  list("FileMenu", NULL, "Input File"),
  list("Open", "gtk-open", "_Import CSV File", "<control>O",
       "Select a CSV file to load as a spreadsheet", open_cb),
  list("Quit", "gtk-quit", "_Quit", "<control>Q",
       "Quit the application", quit_cb)
)
action_group <- gtkActionGroup("spreadsheetActions")
action_group$addActions(actions, main_window)

ui_manager <- gtkUIManager()
ui_manager$insertActionGroup(action_group, 0)
merge <- ui_manager$newMergeId()
ui_manager$addUi(merge.id = merge, path = "/", name = "menubar", action =
NULL, type = "menubar", top = FALSE)
ui_manager$addUi(merge, "/menubar", "file", "FileMenu", "menu", FALSE)
ui_manager$addUi(merge, "/menubar/file", "open", "Open", "menuitem", FALSE)
ui_manager$addUi(merge, "/", "toolbar", NULL, "toolbar", FALSE)
ui_manager$addUi(merge, "/toolbar", "quit", "Quit", "toolitem", FALSE)

menubar <- ui_manager$getWidget("/menubar")
toolbar <- ui_manager$getWidget("/toolbar")
main_window$addAccelGroup(ui_manager$getAccelGroup())

# Status bar shown at bottom left of GUI
statusbar <- gtkStatusbar()
info <- statusbar$getContextId("info")
statusbar$push(info, "Ready")

notebook <- gtkNotebook()
notebook$setTabPos("bottom")

vbox <- gtkVBox(homogeneous = FALSE, spacing = 0)
vbox$packStart(menubar, expand = FALSE, fill = FALSE, padding = 0)
vbox$packStart(toolbar, FALSE, FALSE, 0) # Uncomment if toolbar is used
vbox$packStart(notebook, TRUE, TRUE, 0)
vbox$packStart(statusbar, FALSE, FALSE, 0)
main_window$add(vbox)

# open GUI window
main_window$show()

gtkWidgetGrabFocus(main_window)

# This repeat loop & stopNOW variable keeps the GUI window open until closed
repeat {
Sys.sleep(0.001)
    if (StopNOW == 1) break
  }
# End GUI Code

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