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trace(..., edit=TRUE) with external editor

2 messages · Ryan, Rob Goedman

Original
Ryan
# 
I am using an external editor (TextMate) with R and I want to be able  
to successfully use trace(function, edit=TRUE).  Has anyone been able  
to do this?

I am using Leopard, R version 2.7.0 R.app GUI 1.24 (5102).  I've tried  
it with other external editors as well.  For example, set an external  
editor (TextEdit, for example) in the Preferences and then try  
"trace(plot, edit=TRUE)" and add something like "message('hi')" to the  
top of the function, save and exit the text editor.  Then call  
"body(plot" in R - the added line is not there.  Is it not possible?   
Thanks!
Rob Goedman
# 
Ryan,

It takes a few more steps in an external editor:

1.	In your example below, with TextMate as the external editor  
preference, change the 1st line in the newly opened Textmate edit  
window from 'function (x, y, ...)', e.g. to e.g. 'myplot <-function  
(x, y, ...)'

2.	Add, again following your example, the 'message("Hi")' line

3.	Send the document to R (you can't use Command-R immediately as the  
Textmate edit window is likely in default mode (unless you saved the  
file with a .R extension). Change it to R mode and Command-R should do  
the trick. Or select the appropriate entry from the R command group.

Using the external editor, R is not kept 'waiting' for the editor to  
close, so above steps are required.

For this reason, I rarely define TextEdit etc. as an external editor  
in R.app's preferences. All edit work I do inside a TextMate project  
and 'source' (command-R) files from there. Your example then happily  
uses the internal editor. By saving the edited trace file from within  
the internal editor in your TextMate project directory, it will be  
added to your project list in TextMate. This way I can also use the  
other nifty features of the internal editor (almost as a different  
kind of help window).

Hope this helps,
Rob
On Jul 21, 2008, at 7:43 PM, Ryan Hafen wrote: