[R] To improve my understanding of workspaces

[Kevin E. Thorpe]

Hello.

I have grown accustomed to the .Data directory in S-Plus and so when
I came to R I continued that behaviour by saving my workspaces at
the end of each R session.  So, I have saved workspaces in various
directories where I have used R just as I would have had various
.Data directories where I had used S-Plus.

I have seen comments on the list, most recently from Prof. Ripley
that they don't routinely save their workspaces in this way.
So my questions are:

   1. What do people do instead to manage projects?
   2. Is there an "official" recommendation?

 From my reading I have learned that you can save data frames
(and other objects?) to disk and then attach them.  Does this
save memory?  If I have read correctly, I understand that
everything in the workspace is in memory, but haven't been able
to determine if objects in the search path are as well.

Kind Regards,

Kevin

-- 
Kevin E. Thorpe
Biostatistician/Trialist, Knowledge Translation Program
Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
email: kevin.thorpe at utoronto.ca  Tel: 416.946.8081  Fax: 416.946.3297