[R] Emacs vs Eclipse vs Rcmdr

[Charlotte Maia]

Hi everyone,

I could have posted this on R-devel or the GUI list, however don't
feel it's that serious.
Hence, decided R-help would be the most appropriate.

I'm not so much interested in which is the best user interface for R.
Rather which is the best ***platform*** for developing ***new*** user
interfaces for R.
Noting I'm using the term user interface is a very general sense.
(i.e. Can include anything from console/pseudoterminal widgets, to
text editors with customised syntax highlighting, to elaborate menus
and dialog boxes).

Here are my initial thoughts:

Emacs Pros:
- A lot of computer "experts" use it.
- Plus some high profile R people are involved in the development of ESS.
- High level of customisation.

Emacs Cons:
- Need to know Lisp.
- Counter intuitive.
- It's really ugly.
- No decent widget set (which is probably why it's ugly).

Eclipse Pros:
- It's kind of fashionable and nice looking.

Eclipse Cons:
- Unnecessarily complicated.
- Need to know SWT (and maybe XML too?).
- The process for installing (and finding) add on packages, is terrible.

Rcmdr Pros and Cons:
- I haven't used it for a long time, so can't really comment.
- However, I was surprised by how many reverse dependencies it has. So
I will assume it has some potential.

Other people's thoughts welcome...


kind regards
-- 
Charlotte Maia
Open Source Developer and Statistician
http://sites.google.com/site/maiagx