unix-type commandline keystrokes in the windows RGUI
wow, ok, thanks everyone lots for me to explore. I will take some time, and if none of these achieve what I'm trying to get at I will come back here. Thanks! Mike
Adaikalavan Ramasamy wrote:
Well, I don't see why you need the CTRL-R functionality when you can just as rapidly and efficiently using SEARCH functionality in scripts too (CTRL-F in most applications, CTRL-S in emacs etc). BTW, I am quite familiar with Unix, Linux and Sun Solaris and what CTRL-R does (yes, I used it frequently). Which is why I am able to tell you that CTRL-R will pull up all matching commands - even commands that had failed! At least in a script environment, you tend to correct failed commands. So you know when you search scripts, it will likely be the correct command. To summarize my view, I feel that CTRL-R is appropriate for shell operations where one codes on the fly while using a search functionality and scripting is appropriate for a scientific programming software. Anyway, here is how to do what you want: 1) Install bash on your Windows machine - You can use cgywin. Or download and unzip http://www.steve.org.uk/Software/bash/ 2) Make the directory to bash.exe and R.exe are in your PATH variable. 3) Start -> Run -> cmd 4) Start R.exe and now you should have your CTRL-R functionality (along with ls and other bash goodies). Yes, I know you asked about Rgui.exe and not R.exe. But this is the best I can do. By all means go bother the R developers (most of whom I suspect are on the mailing list). I will be interested in what they say. Regards, Adai mfrumin wrote:
Adaikalavan, thanks. Perhaps I was not so specific enough in what I want, for those not so familiar with unix commandline featuers. I'm looking for the 'reverse search' functionality where you hit CTRL-R, then start typing a bit of text and it finds previous commands with that bit of text, which you just hit enter to execute. I already do write tons of code/scripts in R (using Emacs in fact!). But one of the great features of R/SPSS/Matlab/etc is that they are interactive environments. Thus, I spend lots of time issuing commands as well as writing code. I want to be able to search back through those commands as rapidly and efficiently as you can in the unix (and R unix) commandline. Another way to think about this is -- the unix commandline environment is a scripting environment where you can use emacs. Yet users of unix love the CTRL-R functionality anyway (they wrote it!). So, any suggestions to help do what I specifically asked, or should I go bother the R developers? thanks, Mike