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

[Simon Urbanek]

On Jan 15, 2010, at 5:35 PM, David Winsemius wrote:

> 
> 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 (.


Interesting idea - I'll have look ...


>> 
>> 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

It is really <Ctrl><A> - the unix way. I dimly remember that there was some issue with <Cmd><Left> when I was implementing it, but if it comes to worst the you can simply remap it the plist. I may re-visit the issue ..


>> 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?
> 

No, I think Deryk meant the built-in one, literally, (= built in the R.app).

Cheers,
Simon


>> 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
> 
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