1 ANNOUNCING ESS
****************
The ESS Developers proudly announce the release of ESS
5.13
Emacs Speaks Statistics (ESS) provides an intelligent, consistent
interface between the user and the software. ESS interfaces with
R/S-PLUS, SAS, BUGS/JAGS, Stata and other statistical analysis packages
under the UNIX, GNU Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and other
operating systems. ESS is a package for the GNU Emacs and XEmacs text
editors whose features ESS uses to streamline the creation and use of
statistical software. ESS knows the syntax and grammar of statistical
analysis packages and provides consistent display and editing features
based on that knowledge. ESS assists in interactive and batch
execution of statements written in these statistical analysis languages.
ESS is freely available under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Please read the file COPYING which comes with the distribution, for
more information about the license. For more detailed information,
please read the README files that come with ESS.
1.1 Getting the Latest Version
==============================
The latest released version of ESS is always available on the web at:
ESS web page (http://ess.r-project.org) or StatLib
(http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/general/ESS/)
The latest development version of ESS is available via
`https://svn.R-project.org/ESS/', the ESS Subversion repository. If
you have a Subversion client (see `http://subversion.tigris.org/'), you
can download the sources using:
% svn checkout https://svn.r-project.org/ESS/trunk PATH
which will put the ESS files into directory PATH. Later, within
that directory, `svn update' will bring that directory up to date.
Windows-based tools such as TortoiseSVN are also available for
downloading the files. Alternatively, you can browse the sources with a
web browser at: ESS SVN site (https://svn.r-project.org/ESS/trunk).
However, please use a subversion client instead to minimize the load
when retrieving.
If you remove other versions of ESS from your emacs load-path, you
can then use the development version by adding the following to .emacs:
(load "/path/to/ess-svn/lisp/ess-site.el")
Note that https is required, and that the SSL certificate for the
Subversion server of the R project is
Certificate information:
- Hostname: svn.r-project.org
- Valid: from Jul 16 08:10:01 2004 GMT until Jul 14 08:10:01 2014 GMT
- Issuer: Department of Mathematics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, CH
- Fingerprint: c9:5d:eb:f9:f2:56:d1:04:ba:44:61:f8:64:6b:d9:33:3f:93:6e:ad
(currently, there is no "trusted certificate"). You can accept this
certificate permanently and will not be asked about it anymore.
1.2 Current Features
====================
* Languages Supported:
* S family (S 3/4, S-PLUS and R)
* SAS
* BUGS/JAGS
* Stata
* XLispStat including Arc and ViSta
* Editing source code (S family, SAS, BUGS/JAGS, Stata)
* Syntactic indentation and highlighting of source code
* Partial evaluation of code
* Loading and error-checking of code
* Source code revision maintenance
* Batch execution (SAS, BUGS/JAGS)
* Use of imenu to provide links to appropriate functions
* Interacting with the process (S family, SAS, Stata)
* Command-line editing
* Searchable Command history
* Command-line completion of S family object names and file
names
* Quick access to object lists and search lists
* Transcript recording
* Interface to the help system
* Transcript manipulation (S family, Stata)
* Recording and saving transcript files
* Manipulating and editing saved transcripts
* Re-evaluating commands from transcript files
* Help File Editing (R)
* Syntactic indentation and highlighting of source code.
* Sending Examples to running ESS process.
* Previewing
1.3 Requirements
================
ESS is most likely to work with current/recent versions of the following
statistical packages: R/S-PLUS, SAS, Stata and JAGS. BUGS, which is
quite old now, is deprecated but it might still work.
ESS supports current/recent versions of GNU Emacs and XEmacs. Most
notably, the GNU Emacs 22 series and XEmacs 21.4.14 or higher
(beta/pre-release versions are NOT SUPPORTED).
1.4 Stability
=============
All recent released versions are meant to be release-quality versions.
While some new features are being introduced, we are cleaning up and
improving the interface. We know that there are many remaining
opportunities for documentation improvements, but all contributors are
volunteers and time is precious. Patches or suggested fixes with bug
reports are much appreciated!
1.5 Mailing List
================
There is a mailing list for discussions and announcements relating to
ESS. Join the list by sending an e-mail with "subscribe ess-help" (or
"help") in the body to <ess-help-request@stat.math.ethz.ch>;
contributions to the list may be mailed to
<ess-help@stat.math.ethz.ch>. Rest assured, this is a fairly
low-volume mailing list.
The purposes of the mailing list include
* helping users of ESS to get along with it.
* discussing aspects of using ESS on Emacs and XEmacs.
* suggestions for improvements.
* announcements of new releases of ESS.
* posting small patches to ESS.
1.6 Reporting Bugs
==================
Please send bug reports, suggestions etc. to
<ESS-bugs@stat.math.ethz.ch>
The easiest way to do this is within Emacs by typing
`M-x ess-submit-bug-report'
This also gives the maintainers valuable information about your
installation which may help us to identify or even fix the bug.
If Emacs reports an error, backtraces can help us debug the problem.
Type "M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET". Then run the
command that causes the error and you should see a *Backtrace* buffer
containing debug information; send us that buffer.
Note that comments, suggestions, words of praise and large cash
donations are also more than welcome.
1.7 Authors
===========
* A.J. Rossini (mailto:blindglobe@gmail.com)
* Richard M. Heiberger (mailto:rmh@temple.edu)
* Kurt Hornik (mailto:Kurt.Hornik@R-project.org)
* Martin Maechler (mailto:maechler@stat.math.ethz.ch)
* Rodney A. Sparapani (mailto:rsparapa@mcw.edu)
* Stephen Eglen (mailto:stephen@gnu.org)
* Sebastian P. Luque (mailto:spluque@gmail.com)
* Henning Redestig (mailto:henning.red@googlemail.com)
1.8 License
===========
ESS is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later
version.
ESS is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
in the file COPYING in the same directory as this file for more details.
1.9 New Features
================
Changes/New Features in 5.13:
* ESS[R]: On Windows, for R 2.12.0 and later, the Rterm
executables (in subdirectories i386 / x64) now are found as
well as for earlier R versions.
* ESS[S+]: on Windows, both 32- and 64-bit versions of S+
("S-PLUS") are found now and made available on the menu.
* ESS[R]: When prompting for a starting directory, the R
version is (always?) correct now.
* ESS[R]: on non-Windows platforms, the `use-dialog-box'
variable is no longer temporarily changed (to `nil' for
R-x.y.z version functions and to `t' for `R' itself), but
rather the user customization is obeyed.
* ESS[R]: more Roxygen improvements.
* `Rd-preview-help' now generates preview buffers with
navigation facilities the same as regular help buffers.
* ESS: New functions and keys C-c [up] / [down] for evaluating
the buffer "from beginning till here".
Changes/New Features in 5.12:
* ESS[SAS] Font-locking: update of PROCs keywords (up to SAS
9.22); error/warnings.
* ESS[R]: Roxygen improvements: S4 classes; also optionally
keep spaces when filling arguments
* ESS[Rd]: support new keywords: section-name \subsection plus
a dozen "new" keywords; should match R 2.12.x now.
* `ess-display-help-on-object' (`C-c C-v') now _caches_ the
list of topics, thus speeding up the improvement feature
introduced in 5.9.
Changes/New Features in 5.11:
* Filename completion within buffers now adds only trailing
characters to complete the filename, rather than expanding to
an absolute file path. This filename completion is bound to
the TAB key.
* `M-n P' in Sweave buffers now prompts for the command to run
instead of using `pdflatex' unconditionally, offering
completion from customizable collection
`ess-swv-pdflatex-commands', the first of which is taken as
default and that defaults to `texi2pdf'.
* `M-RET' is now also bound in S language (R and S+) buffers to
`ess-use-this-dir'. It sends `setwd(..)' to the S process to
set the working directory to the one of the source file.
Changes/New Features in 5.10:
* `M-RET' in *S* buffers is now bound to `ess-dirs'. This
function will set Emacs's current directory to be the same as
the *S* process. This is useful if you use `setwd()' within
a *S* process.
Changes/New Features in 5.9:
* Toolbar: The toolbar now has an icon for starting Splus.
* Indentation: New documentation and code has been added to
make it easier to change how ESS indents code. In
particular, see `ess-default-style', `ess-own-style-list' and
the documention subsection "Changing indentation styles".
* `ess-display-help-on-object' (`C-c C-v') now offers
completion candidates for help file aliases, in addition to
object names.
* Font locking: is now turned on even without `window-system'
is `nil', whenever ESS-FONT-LOCK-MODE is non-nil, i.e., by
default.
* ESS script editing: ess-eval-deactivate-mark default is now t,
as suggested by Leo Alekseyev and subsequent "unanimous"
ESS-help discussion.
* ESS[R]: Editing support for "#!" (Rscript / littler) editing,
thanks to Jeffrey Arnold.
* ESS[R]: Now finds all R versions, both 64-bit and 32-bit, on
some 64-bit Windows machines. Please report back to
ess-core success or failure on your 64-bit Windows machine.
* ESS Manual now more visually pleasing;
`http://ess.r-project.org/Manual/ess.html'
* ESS[R]: Roxygen on XEmacs no longer font locks for now (as
it required missing features and hence broke ESS startup,
there).
* ESS[R]: Roxygen has a sub-menu on the [ESS] menu.
* ESS[R]: Function `ess-rutils-htmldocs' in `ess-rutils.el'
offers an alternative to `help.start()' for navigating R
documentation, using the `browse-url' Emacs function.
Changes/New Features in 5.8:
* ESS[R]: New `ess-rutils.el' with utilities for listing,
loading, installing, and updating packages, as well as object
manipulation (listing, viewing, and deleting). It also
provides an alternative to `RSiteSearch()' that uses the
`browse-url' function, so results can be viewed in an Emacs
web browser.
* ESS[R]: much more extensive Roxygen interface, via ess-roxy.el
from Henning Redestig. Ess-roxy supports filling of roxygen
fields, generation and updating roxygen templates,
completion of roxygen tags, basic navigation (marking and
moving between entries), folding using hs-minor-mode and
preview of the Rd file.
* Emacs lisp files have got better names (partly, for now).
Changes/New Features in 5.7:
* ESS[R]: loading a source file (`C-c C-l') now works in
Windows, similarly to other platforms; (further; it had
accidentally been broken in ESS 5.6 on all platforms)
Changes/New Features in 5.6:
* ESS[R]: help() calls have to differ from old default, with
newer versions of R; currently via .help.ESS <-
function(...) hack.
Changes/New Features in 5.4:
* ESS[SAS]: The long overdue change from `make-regexp' to
`regexp-opt' for font-locking is complete. The new
`regexp-opt' is now the default since it is better than the
old code in many ways (and especially more maintainable).
However, there are certainly some special cases missed (bug
reports and patches welcome!). Setting
`ess-sas-run-regexp-opt' to `nil' will result in the old code
being used.
* ESS[BUGS] and ESS[JAGS]: typing `=' now results in `<-'.
* ESS[R] function arguments "show" `(ess-r-args-show)' now
uses the new `(tooltip-show-at-point)' contributed by Erik
Iverson.
* Toolbar icons now also work in (beta) Emacs 23.
* ESS[S]: New function `ess-change-directory' for setting both
emacs' current directory and the directory of an *R* or *S*
buffer.
* ESS[S] when transient-mark-mode is true, the mark is now kept,
rather than deactivated, thanks to a patch from David Reitter.
Changes/New Features in 5.3.11:
* ESS[SAS]: work around bug in Emacs 22.2 & 22.3 which fails to
set case-fold fontification automatically.
* Rd mode: support new keyword 'Rdversion'
* ESS[R]: now again works with Emacs 21.x
Changes/New Features in 5.3.10:
* Fixed noweb-mode bug accidentally introduced into 5.3.9
* In noweb-mode, e.g., Rnw-mode, electric "<" also inserts
closing "@". Further, the code chunk boundaries are better
kept up-to-date, such that code[R] <-> text[LaTeX] minor
mode switching should happen more reliably.
* In noweb-mode, fix a buglet in rare [Enter] or [Tab]
behavior; further, by default disable the former `[[' ..
`]]' code-protection-when-filling behavior which has been
found to be buggy.
Changes/New Features in 5.3.9:
* ESS[SAS]: evince PDF viewer now supported as well; search
order: evince, Xpdf, Adobe/Acrobat Reader
* ESS[R]: added support for Roxygen, potentially to be extended.
* ESS[S] (and R): inferior (`*R*') and transcript modes no
longer fontify language keywords (such as `for', `in', etc).
* iESS[Stata]: Customize the `ess-sta-delimiter-friendly'
setting to `t' to convert embedded semi-colons to newlines
for Stata processing.
* Sweave fix for embedded blanks in PDF reader and PDF files
* Several fixes for Major Mode Convention violations in
`ess-mode' and `noweb-mode'.
* ESS[JAGS]: `M-x comment-region' now available!
* ESS[S] The `ess-swv-*' commands (and keybindings) are now in
a submenu of the "Noweb" menu, when editing Sweave files.
Changes/New Features in 5.3.8:
* ESS[JAGS]: more separation from ESS[BUGS] (as much as is
currently planned); now `C-c C-c' on an empty `.jmd' creates
a template as it should; symbolic links are created for CODA
output so BOA is happy: from `index.txt' to `.ind' and
`chain#.txt' to `#.out'
* ESS[SAS]: buffer-local `ess-sas-submit-command' and
`ess-sas-submit-command-options' now recognized by
`ess-sas-submit-region'
* ESS[S]: When trying to evaluate code in an S language buffer
and there is no associated process, now start R
automatically instead of signalling an error. Also, restart
R if there is an associated process which is not running.
However, do not start R just via the "electric" `('
(`ess-r-args-auto-show').
* ESS[S]: For (one-line) functions withOUT '{ .. }' bodys, the
end of function is now correctly found more often. This
notably improves `C-c C-c'
(`ess-eval-function-or-paragraph-and-step').
* ESS[JAGS]: cleanup/re-organization of elisp code; symbolic
links for CODA output are now only created by the new JAGS
`system' command in version 1.0.3; specify whether this
command is available via `ess-jags-system'; if not present,
then no links are created so that the `*shell*' buffer does
not become unresponsive during the batch run
Changes/New Features in 5.3.7:
* ESS: `ess-default-style' now *is* customizable, i.e.,
changing its value in `~/.emacs' now does have the desired
effect.
* ESS: `ess-font-lock-mode' is a new variable (default: t)
which controls whether font-locking is enabled in ESS buffers.
* ESS[R]: for XEmacs on Windows; another tweak to find R
versions
* ESS[SAS]: font-locking updated for ODS and SAS Bayesian
Procedures; a more consistent handling of SAS options by
`ess-sas-submit-command-options' which is buffer-local;
portable snooze for MS Windows via customize-able
`ess-sleep-for' (floats welcome); Xpdf now supported as a PDF
viewer
* ESS[Rnw]: now also works with "emacs -nw" and Emacs 22.
* ESS[JAGS]: now requires JAGS 1.0 (see the new ESS for JAGS
help section for more information): both need work;
suggestions welcome
* ESS[R]: [TAB] completion now uses the R-internal completion
mechanism (for R >= 2.5.0).
* ESS[R] ([S]): interpretation of "_" as assignment has been
removed in `ess-continued-statement-p' for R and S.
* several internal code cleanups.
* ESS[R]: An experimental version of a new command `Rgui' on MS
Windows to send lines directly from emacs to `Rgui' is
available in file `lisp/essd-rgui.el'. Preliminary
documentation is in file `doc/rgui-doc.txt'.
Changes/New Features in 5.3.6:
* ESS: for XEmacs, using "gnuclient" (without a "-q") works for
things like fix() after M-x gnuserv-start has been done.
* ESS[R]: M-x R-newest should now work in more situations on MS
Windows, e.g., when R has been installed in a non-default
"ProgramFiles" directory tree. In these cases, there's no
need to specify the name (and full path) of the R program
anymore.
* ESS[R]: For XEmacs, startup (with new tooltip code) works
again.
Changes/New Features in 5.3.5:
* ESS[R] a new defun is available, `M-x R-newest', which will
start the newest version of R that it can find on your system.
* ESS[R] add Sven Hartenstein's "R function arguments tips"
functionality, via new file `../lisp/essd-r-args.el'. Note
that this includes an "electric "("" behavior inside `R-mode'
which is _active by default_ and can be customized via
`ess-r-args-electric-paren'; i.e., use `(setq
ess-r-args-electric-paren nil)' to turn it off. Further,
`ess-r-args-show-as' allows to switch to the "tooltip" mode.
* ESS: functions `ess-get-pdf-viewer' and *-ps-viewer; built on
new customizable variables `ess-pdf-viewer-pref' and
`ess-ps-viewer-pref'; currently used in `ess-swv-PDF' and
`*-PS'.
* ESS[R] Improved `ess-swv-PDF' to run pdf viewer only if
pdflatex was ok
* ESS[R] Improved `ess-swv-weave' to start R automatically if
none is running.
* ESS: Do no longer ask _which_ ESS process to use if there is
only one.
Changes/New Features in 5.3.4:
* ESS[R] now better work with options(error=recover); and the
new default of CHM help files on windows.
* ESS[R] some more cleanup in the "sweave" functions
* miscellaneous fixes
Changes/New Features in 5.3.3:
* ESS[S] fix buglet (5.3.2 only) which left command prompt in
"execute buffer" and hence help files.
* new customizable variable `ess-display-buffer-reuse-frames'
set to true (which changes default behavior) such that
execution or help *frames* are reused.
Changes/New Features in 5.3.2:
* Classic BUGS now supported by `(require 'essd-bugs)' with
ESS[BUGS] and JAGS by `(require 'essd-jags)' with
ESS[JAGS]. But, only one of them can be used at a time
since they don't play nice together. Also, `C-c C-c'
is now bound to the function `ess-bugs-next-action'
(`F12' has been retired). And finally, note that
`essl-bug.el' is deprecated and the replacement is
`essl-bugs.el'.
* ESS[R] Improved some of the "Sweave-make" functions (yet
scarcely documented) in `ess-swv.el'.
* ESS[S] No longer mess with .Last.value (nor in other
"languages").
Changes/New Features in 5.3.1:
* See the docs for 2 ways to install ESS for XEmacs
1. by uncommenting the XEmacs part of Section 1
of `Makeconf' and performing `make install'
2. by unpacking either `ess-5.3.1.tgz' or
`ess-5.3.1.zip' into
`PREFIX/lib/xemacs/site-packages' on unix or
`PREFIX\XEmacs\site-packages' on windows
* ESS[R]: fixed bugs so that Rterm.exe can be found by XEmacs
* ESS[S]: `ess-toggle-S-assign-key' is slightly changed; in
particular, the default `ess-assign-key' is now `C-x ='.
* ESS[R]: `M-x R-site-search' is a new (slightly experimental)
utility similar to R's `RSiteSearch(..)' but with the
advantage of using Emacs' preferred browser, see
`browse-url-browser-function'
Changes/New Features in 5.3.0:
* ESS[BUGS]: sanely re-format statistical output, `.bog', from
scientific notation to numbers rounded with 4 decimal places
with `M-x ess-bugs-sci-round-to-4-dp'.
* The keys for navigating among section headings in help buffers
worked, but only for one language per session; they should
now work for multiple languages. (They were also broken on
Windows machines.)
* ESS[S] long standing buglets in the internal logic for loading
lisp code on Windows. Particularly fixed behavior in help
mode with S-plus GUI.
* New variable, `ess-use-inferior-program-name-in-buffer-name',
which enables using the executable name instead of the
dialect name for R. Feature request.
* ESS[S] `ess-execute-screen-options' now also works correctly
when there is more than one window *side-by-side* in the same
frame and runs in the correct buffer also when there is more
than one S buffer.
* iESS[S] new functions `ess-eval-paragraph-and-step' and
`ess-eval-function-or-paragraph-and-step' are bound to keys
`C-c C-p' and `C-c C-c' respectively and to the menu in
ESS-mode; also bound in the help mode (for evaluating
examples).
* ESS[S] new function `ess-toggle-S-assign-key' allows to
assign the " <- " insertion to an arbitrary key.
