[R-sig-teaching] text editor for teaching R

[Greg Snow]

In windows, the simplest editor to use is the built in one in the R gui.  Just click on file, then New Script and it will open a blank editor (or use open script to read in a file).  This is a pretty basic editor, it does not do syntax highlighting, paren matching an several other things that are nice in Tinn-R, ESS/emacs and others.  

But one really nice thing is that you can highlight a section of code and just click a single button on the toolbar and the highlighted code will be copied to the command line and run.  Or without a selection, the same button will run the current line and advance to the next line (so clicking the button several times runs the next several lines of code).

And you don't have to install anything besides R.

Hope this helps,

-- 
Gregory (Greg) L. Snow Ph.D.
Statistical Data Center
Intermountain Healthcare
greg.snow at imail.org
801.408.8111


> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-sig-teaching-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-sig-teaching-
> bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Stuart Wagenius
> Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 1:47 PM
> To: r-sig-teaching at r-project.org
> Subject: [R-sig-teaching] text editor for teaching R
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I teach statistics using R in a classroom with Windows machines. For
> class, I use Notepad and cut and paste to the console. For my own
> work, I use a Mac or I use a PC with Tinn-R. The send-to-R feature is
> great. I would like to have the students use Tinn-R because the
> send-to-R feature is so nice, but recent versions of Tinn-R are too
> complicated and quirky. I feel that trying to set-up Tinn-R on the
> class computers would be a hassle and using it in class may be too
> distracting.
> 
> Can anyone recommend a text editor for teaching R on machines running
> Windows Vista? Is there something simple to set up, stable to run, and
> easy to use?
> 
> Thanks,
> Stuart
> 
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