[R] Best R text editors?

Clint Bowman clint at ecy.wa.gov
Fri Sep 11 16:16:44 CEST 2009


On Fri, 11 Sep 2009, Duncan Murdoch wrote:

> On 11/09/2009 6:53 AM, (Ted Harding) wrote:
>>  On 11-Sep-09 10:41:21, Jim Lemon wrote:
>> >  On 09/11/2009 05:15 PM, Patrick Connolly wrote:
>> > >  ...
>> > > | >   and in previous versions, you could always do M-x cua-mode for
>> > > | >   the same effect. Talk about a well-hidden function mostly 
>> > > | >   directed
>> > > | >   at beginners ...
>> > > 
>> > >  Perhaps the thinking was that by the time they find it, they'll
>> > >  already have noticed that they can cut/copy and paste using only the
>> > >  mouse buttons and won't be bothered with such inefficient methods.
>> > > 
>> > >  Though this be madness, yet there is a method in't. :-)
>> > > 
>> >  Well, okay, let's look at it from the viewpoint of learning theory. We 
>> >  expect that if someone has learned a skill, they will prefer to engage 
>> >  in other behaviors where they can successfully use that skill. Upon
>> >  this easily understood foundation rest the fortunes of many. Thus two of 
>> >  those entities, let us call them A and M for the purposes of
>> >  discussion, spend a great deal of time and effort attempting to 
>> >  differentiate their
>> >  interfaces from each other so that having trained their users, those 
>> >  users will be reluctant to switch to the competitor. However, they must
>> >  remain similar enough so that the switch from the competitor is not 
>> >  impossible. Such is the dispiriting triumph of form over substance in 
>> >  interface design. Both have yet to abandon such atavists as myself who 
>> >  prefer to type rather than fiddle with a pointing device, though they 
>> >  try hard to convert us. A somewhat smaller organization that I will 
>> >  label G seems to have decided that it can build a user base by sticking
>> >  to the arcane typoglyphics of the VT-100 era and enticing the largely 
>> >  amoral digirati with moral suasion. Now that's madness.
>> > 
>> >  Jim
>>
>>  Once again, I cannot resist citing the immortal quote (from Charles
>>  Curran, of the UK Unix Users Group):
>>
>>    "I can touch-type, but I can't touch-mouse"
>
> That's a strange disability.  It took me several months to learn to 
> touch-type (and years later I'm still not very good at the top-row numbers or 
> the special symbols on them), but I memorized the location of the two buttons 
> on my mouse in no time at all.
>
> Duncan Murdoch

Ahh, just Ted's point--mice have three buttons (unless they are 
connected to Apples).

Clint

>
>>
>>  Originally posted on Wed Nov 17 13:48:14 2004, in the context of an
>>  extended discussion (still relevant to the present thread):
>>
>>    http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/Rhelp02/archive/41560.html
>>
>>  Best wishes to all,
>>  Ted.
>>
>>  --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk>
>>  Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
>>  Date: 11-Sep-09                                       Time: 11:53:09
>>  ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
>>
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>
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-- 
Clint Bowman			INTERNET:	clint at ecy.wa.gov
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