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

[David Winsemius]

On Jan 16, 2010, at 6:20 PM, Deryk Wenaus wrote:

> Hi Simon,
>
> thanks for the responses. yes I did mean the editor built into the R  
> app. Ctrl-A is helpful, I'll try the unix way, and try to let go of  
> the mac way Cmd-Left Arrow :)
>
> Also, I tried to install the R.plist that is floating around for  
> texwrangler, the younger sibling of BBEdit, but at first i had no  
> luck with the instructions. The folder they said to put it into does  
> not exist for bbedit: "~/Library/Application Support/BBEdit/Language
> Modules/". So today I tried creating the folder (not something I  
> like to do in the Library folder) and it works fine in BBedit. You  
> have to make sure to map .R to the R language as well in the BBEdit  
> preferences. The latest file was found here: http://homepages.nyu.edu/~jmb736/code/R_language_module_for_BBEdit/R.plist 
>  and there was also an interesting pdf found here:  http://tr.im/KBw8

And now that you have an editor with macro capabilities, you could  
define a cntrl-[ and a cntrl-( that will give you pairing of brackets  
and parens.

-- 
David.


>
> Cheers,
> Deryk
>
> -----------------------------
> Deryk Wenaus
> derykw at gmail.com
> University of Waterloo
> Independent Studies
>
> On 2010-01-15, at 9:25 PM, Simon Urbanek wrote:
>
>>
>> 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
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> R-SIG-Mac mailing list
>>> R-SIG-Mac at stat.math.ethz.ch
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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David Winsemius, MD
Heritage Laboratories
West Hartford, CT