User manual

Chapter 12: Overview of ESS features for the S family 64
’( ("Splus64" "/usr/local/bin/Splus64")
("Splus64-j" "/usr/local/bin/Splus64" "-j")))
which will then allow you to do M-x Splus64-j to start Splus64 with the corresponding
command line arguments.
If you change the value of either ess-s-versions or ess-s-versions-list, you should
put them in your .emacs before ess-site is loaded, since the new emacs functions are created
when ESS is loaded.
Sqpe (S-Plus running inside an emacs buffer) on Windows systems: If you have an
older version of S-Plus (S-Plus 6.1 for example) on your system, ir can be started inside
an emacs buffer with M-x splus61. By default, ESS will find versions of S-Plus located in
the installation directories that Insightful uses by default. If your versions of S-Plus are
anywhere else, you will need to change the variable ess-SHOME-versions. To see which
functions have been created for starting different versions of S-Plus, type M-x spl and then
hit [Tab]. These other versions of S-Plus can also be started from the "ESS->Start Process-
>Other" menu.
12.3 ESS-help–assistance with viewing help
ESS has built-in facilities for viewing help files from S. See Chapter 8 [Help], page 44.
12.4 Philosophies for using ESS[S]
The first is preferred, and configured for. The second one can be retrieved again, by changing
emacs variables.
1: (preferred by the current group of developers): The source code is real. The objects
are realizations of the source code. Source for EVERY user modified object is placed in a
particular directory or directories, for later editing and retrieval.
2: (older version): S objects are real. Source code is a temporary realization of the
objects. Dumped buffers should not be saved. We strongly discourage this approach .
However, if you insist, add the following lines to your .emacs file:
(setq ess-keep-dump-files ’nil)
(setq ess-delete-dump-files t)
(setq ess-mode-silently-save nil)
The second saves a small amount of disk space. The first allows for better portability as
well as external version control for code.
12.5 Scenarios for use (possibilities–based on actual usage)
We present some basic suggestions for using ESS to interact with S. These are just a subset
of approaches, many better approaches are possible. Contributions of examples of how you
work with ESS are appreciated (especially since it helps us determine priorities on future
enhancements)! (comments as to what should be happening are prefixed by "##").
1: ## Data Analysis Example (source code is real)
## Load the file you want to work with
C-x C-f myfile.s