Regarding JGR... I'm interested to know what features you would like to
see
in JGR to make it fit your needs more.
Main thing for any power user of an interactive programing language are
shortkeys:
- Basic navigation keys
(http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Moving-Point.html#Moving-Point).
Mouse is a trap. With proper short keys for code navigation
(words,sentences,paragraphs, code chunks (sexps)) one becomes k-folds more
efficient.
- Sending code from editor in different ways (line, paragraph, function,
selection). And potentially combination of those - say if text is
selected, then region is executed if not, one line is sent to console and
the cursor is moved to the next one.
- All short keys are better be customizable, like in emacs or lyx - one
startup file with simple description of associated commands.
There are a couple of newer features
which have made it suit my needs better. We recently added preference
items
to change the output and command colors, as well as the editor syntax
coloring which can now psuedo-emulate the coloring of emacs, xcode,
ecplise,
vim, and visual studio. Auto-tabbing was also added, though it is
simplistic
as of yet. What features would you like to see in a console?
JGR still lacks "previous matching input" behavior - only those lines are
recalled that match starting string in command window.
Navigation by keys through previous output can be useful. Execution of
previous lines from output window are of great help(probably quite a task
for JGR since that window is not editable).
Other things like code folding and outlining in editor, point sensitive
help are of not that much importance but could improve efficiency as well.
Regarding other platforms... Right now the code is tied into JGR, but it
wouldn't be too hard to port it to a different platform. JGR has the
advantage that it is fully Java based, which make the development of
Deducer
easier. I don't really know much about ess or sciviews, but in order to
be
used, a platform would need 1. access to rJava 2. a way to enter commands
into the terminal from java 3. a way to add menu items and hook them up
to
java methods. For the time being I'm pretty committed to using JGR, when
Deducer is more mature I'll think about supporting others.
Deducer is a great fit, no doubt about that. R lack of internal
spreadsheet is sometimes annoying. In my view, if Deducer could replace
R's edit() command then not only JGR users but the whole community would
benefit enormously. Just to find a way to link it to R process. I don't
know much about rJava or how ESS internals work but taking into
consideration versatility of emacs that probably won't be a problem. For
instance Rcmder works reasonably well with ESS and all other guis; Why not
a stand alone Deducer?
Thanks again for sharing the application. A very useful start indeed.
Best,
Vitalie.
_______________________________________________
R-SIG-GUI mailing list
R-SIG-GUI@stat.math.ethz.ch
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-gui
