[Rd] R --interactive -e 'browser()'

[Abby Spurdle]

I should add:

In theory, R could emulate the behavior of a compiled programming language.
(In which case, R could read input from the user, or use debugging
tools, when told to).
However, I can't see R-core supporting this approach in the foreseeable future.

A related topic is running R inside Java and C++ programs.
Something R-core is *un*enthusiastic about...???

I note that a number of people have requested the ability to run R
scripts like executable files (easily), or to run scripts with partial
interactivity.

It would be possible to create a special-purpose pty-based (or
pty-like) application specifically to run R, which could allow the
user to emulate the behavior of a compiled language (and do a few
other things), but I'm wondering if it's ethical to publish it...???


On Sun, Feb 23, 2020 at 10:21 AM Abby Spurdle <spurdle.a using gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Here's what I would expect:
>
> In interactive mode, input is taken from the user (i.e. command line).
> In non-interactive mode, input is taken from a text file (or equivalent).
>
> What you're trying to do is run R in *non*-interactive mode, and call
> the browser function.
> This requires input to come from the user (i.e. command line) and from
> a text file (or equivalent), at essentially the same time.
>
> While doing fantasmoswankyblastik things with I/O is a lot of fun.
> I don't think it's R's job to do that.
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 21, 2020 at 6:25 PM <frederik using ofb.net> wrote:
> >
> > I would like to have a mode where I can run some R code in an executable script, like with Rscript, but interactively, so that e.g. 'browser()' works.
> >
> >  From the manual page it looks like this should work:
> >
> >      R --interactive -e 'source("script.R")'
> >
> > or we could shorten it to:
> >
> >      R --interactive -e 'browser()'
> >
> > However, it seems that --interactive causes -e to be ignored.
> >
> > And if I leave out --interactive, then R quits before the browser() function exits.
> >
> >  From an engineering standpoint it doesn't seem like it should be very difficult to tell the interactive REPL to pretend that a certain command was entered before everything else. Also, it would be useful to me to be able to debug R scripts using standard features like 'browser()'. Should I submit a feature request on Bugzilla, or maybe someone can advise me how to proceed?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Frederick
> >
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