[R-SIG-Mac] suggestion to improve R GUI on Mac OS X

[David Winsemius]

On Jan 15, 2010, at 12:42 PM, Deryk Wenaus wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I've been using R for a little while and have a simple suggestion to  
> improve usability.
>
> While I find the match brace/quotes feature in R! to be handy,  
> especially when writing new code, it is problematic when I am  
> editing existing code. For example, if I want to add an R command  
> around an existing command, I always get () when I just need (.
>
> I suggest changing the behaviour so that if there is a space or  
> nothing to the right of the cursor then if you type in ( you get  
> ( ). But if there is a character to the right of the cursor, disable  
> this auto-adding. So if you type in ( you get (.
>
> One last item, When I am on the R command line and press Command- 
> Left Arrow. I want to go to the beginning of the R prompt, ( after  
> the > ) but instead I end up BEFORE the > prompt - not a good place  
> to be! Is there any way to change this behaviour?

Learn cmd-A
>
> The last issue seems to be a minor bug with Undo in the built in  
> editor. Sometimes when I use undo, the last character in one of the  
> lines deleted does not get deleted. - usually it is a ) or }.  At  
> least R is being less destructive. but it is strange nonetheless.
>
> What is the best editor for Mac OS X? the built in editor,

Which I think is vim, is that right?

> or BBEdit, or TextMate? I have BBEdit,

Opinions vary and are generally based on a trade-off of power (Emacs/ 
AlphaMacs) versus ease of learning (TextWrangler).

> but could not find how to add a new language using the R.plist that  
> is around.

I think you would change the .plist for the editor, rather than for R.

I think TextWrangler is a subset of BBedit, right? There are  
descriptions on the web for configuration of TextWrangler for R syntax  
highlighting that I have used successfully.


>
-- 

David Winsemius, MD
Heritage Laboratories
West Hartford, CT