[R] How to avoid copy-paste when copying code from this list

[(Ted Harding)]

On 19-Sep-09 08:00:18, Cedrick W. Johnson wrote:
> At least in windows, if you right click directly in the r console, 
> there's a command for 'Paste commands only' which may be one
> solution... 
> Not sure about other platforms..
> 
> hth
> c

It was precisely for this kind of reason that, when including
R code in postings to the list, I took to formatting it in the
following kind of way:

  a <- 1:10
  a
  # [1]  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10
  
  a[1:5]
  # [1] 1 2 3 4 5

In this way, any R commands copy-pasted into R will work as-is,
anything else is a comment and will not interfere. I notice that
some other people also post their code in this way.

I recommend it to all! If the code has been copy-pasted into the
email from an R console, then of course the ">" prompts will be
there. But then I just edit these out of the email. A bit more
trouble for me, but a lot less trouble for others.

For instance, if someone had posted the above as copied from the
R console in its original form

> a <- 1:10
> a
 [1]  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10

> a[1:5]
[1] 1 2 3 4 5

and I wanted to try it out, then I would either have to re-open the
email in "edit" mode so as to edit the email itself, or else copy-paste
the above into a text-edit window[*] and pre-edit it there before
copying into R.

[*] I would be using 'vim' in a Linux xterm. Removal of the "> "
prompts (or "+ " continuation prompts) from a long series of commands
is relatively easy: Just higlight a column-block of the first two
columns, then press "d" to delete them. But you would first need to
enter "  # " for other stuff by hand.

Best wishes to all,
Ted.

> 
> johannes rara wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> How do you people avoid copy-pasting and manual editing of the code
>> posted in this list? I mean that if some one post a solution for an
>> answer like this:
>>
>>   
>>> a <- 1:10
>>> a
>>>     
>>  [1]  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10
>>   
>>> a[1:5]
>>>     
>> [1] 1 2 3 4 5
>>   
>>
>> I have to copy-paste it to e.g. Tinn-R and remove "> " part of the
>> line to try it in my R. When you keep doing this it gets quite
>> annoying. How do you people avoid this (search and replace, perhaps?).
>> The best way would be to able to send this straight from your e-mail
>> reader into R (e.g. from gmail).
>>
>> -Johannes

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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
Date: 19-Sep-09                                       Time: 09:33:48
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