[R] editing in R

[A.J. Rossini]

>>>>> "PDB" == Peter Dalgaard BSA <p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk> writes:

    PDB> Matthew Wiener <mcw at ln.nimh.nih.gov> writes:
    >> Hi.
    >>
    >> I'm having a problem with disappearing comments when I transfer
    >> files (entire .RData files) from one machine to another, and
    >> I'm not sure whether it's an R problem or an ESS problem.
    >> Since ESS seems more likely, I'm trying this list first.

    PDB> ...he says and sends to both ess-help and r-help!

    PDB> (However, it seems to me this problem only

    >> Functions originally shows up fine -- if I type the name of a
    >> function at a prompt, the comments are there, and the "source"
    >> attribute of the function has the comments as well. But if I
    >> use control-c control-d to edit the function, the source shows
    >> up without the comments.  And of course once I load that
    >> version, the comments are gone.  The "keep.source" option is
    >> set correctly in R.

    PDB> This because C-c C-d is using dump() which ignores the stored
    PDB> source.  This should probably be changed.

Where, Peter?  In R, or in ESS?  As far as I can tell, this is new
behavior by R which has broken ESS (at least at Matthew is using it).

We do check for the existing file, as the description shows below:

    ;; Three options:
    ;;  (1) Pop to an existing buffer containing the file in question
    ;;  (2) Find an existing file
    ;;  (3) Create a new file by issuing a dump() command to S
    ;; Force option (3) if there is a prefix arg

and if you dump from the current source, of course it overwrites,
since that's what you asked it to do, and since R apparently nukes the
comments, you don't get them again.  

Of course, this is why the preferred philosophy for using ESS is to
treat text as the truth, and .Data/.RData contents as realizations
(possibly with small error) of the truth :-).  One suggestion is to
force all ESS dumps (C-c C-d) to a directory called something like
.Rsrc (to be concurrent with .RData), and so all local (editable) data
will be relative to the .RData in the same directory.

best,
-tony

-- 
A.J. Rossini			Research Assistant Professor of Biostatistics 
Center for AIDS Research/HMC	Biostatistics/Univ. of Washington
Box 359931			Box 357232
206-731-3647 (3693=fax)		206-543-1044 (3286=fax)
rossini at u.washington.edu	rossini at biostat.washington.edu
http://www.biostat.washington.edu/~rossini/

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