[R] Pause script at input from terminal (interactive use)

[Luigi Marongiu]

I am realizing as well that R is not the best option for an
interactive session. I changed the script to get the input from a
config file; it is less elegant because the procedure now requires
double the files than with CLI input, but at the end of the day is
more practical when most of the answer remains the same between
sessions. Thanks.

On Thu, Apr 18, 2019 at 8:47 PM Greg Snow <538280 using gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I am not an expert on Rscript, but I don't think that an actual
> terminal is ever used when using Rscript.  And `interactive()` will
> probably always be false.
>
> So if you want the script to pause for input, you need to have some
> form of user interface to work with.
>
> One option is to use the tcltk package (this works on all OS's to my
> knowledge, but not if you are accessing the computer remotely).  This
> answer on stack overflow shows some code that may help:
> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16847621/get-data-out-of-a-tcltk-function/16847918#16847918
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 18, 2019 at 8:11 AM Luigi Marongiu <marongiu.luigi using gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Dear all,
> > I am trying to write an interactive script where the user type some
> > input from the terminal. I used readline() but when I launch the file
> > with Rscript, the function is overwritten directly, there is no
> > waiting for the user's input. For instance, this example:
> >
> > VAR1 = as.numeric(readline(prompt = "Enter something -> "))
> > VAR2 = as.numeric(readline(prompt = "Enter something else -> "))
> > if(is.na(VAR1)) VAR1 = 0
> > if(is.na(VAR2)) VAR2 = "empty"
> > cat("Input was: ", VAR1, " - ", VAR2, "\n")
> >
> > is executed till the end without typing anything on terminal :
> >
> > $ Rscript test.R
> > Enter something ->
> > Enter something else ->
> > Input was:  0  -  empty
> >
> > I also tried with ',1' at the end of readline, but the effect is the
> > same. I should use the interactive() function but I am confused on its
> > use.
> > It is possible to launch R scritps in the interactive mode in the
> > first place? and if yes, how? Or would python or julia be better
> > choices in this case?
> > Thank you.
> > --
> > Best regards,
> > Luigi
> >
> > ______________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
> Gregory (Greg) L. Snow Ph.D.
> 538280 using gmail.com



-- 
Best regards,
Luigi