Can't open R in Emacs

Can't open R in Emacs

[Hosley]

I need to setup up R, ESS, and GNU Emacs for a class but am having
problems. I'm trying to open R in Emacs by following these steps:

1. Open Emacs
2.Ctrl-x 2, to open 2 buffers
3. Selecting top buffer and clicking Alt-x
4. Typing 'R' then hitting 'enter' twice

This is supposed to open R in the top buffer but instead I get a error
saying no such file or directory. It appears to be look into c:/devl/
emacs/bin as the default. Yet if I type in the correct path (c:/
program files/R/R-2.5.0/bin) manually I get the same error.

Bu the way, I can open R by itself (standalone) and it works fine.

I know this is about as novice as it gets, but I'm not used to these
environments. Any suggestions would be great!

Thanks,
Hos

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 03.08.2007 um 19:51 schrieb Hosley:

> I get a error saying no such file or directory

Isn't there a PATH variable in MS Losedos, too? Extend the initial  
setting in autoexec.bat to include the directories with R related  
executables! At least this is the UNIX way.

--
Greetings

   Pete

Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a night, but set a man on  
fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa@Web.DE>
> Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2007 22:48:31 +0200
> Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> 
> Isn't there a PATH variable in MS Losedos, too? Extend the initial  
> setting in autoexec.bat to include the directories with R related  
> executables!

Modern versions of Windows no longer have autoexec.bat.  PATH is
edited via right-clicking "My Computer" and selecting Properties, then
"Advanced" and "Environment Variables".

But it doesn't sound like PATH is the OP's problem.

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Hosley]

On Aug 3, 4:48 pm, Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyba...@Web.DE> wrote:
> Am 03.08.2007 um 19:51 schrieb Hosley:
>
> > I get a error saying no such file or directory
>
> Isn't there a PATH variable in MS Losedos, too? Extend the initial
> setting in autoexec.bat to include the directories with R related
> executables! At least this is the UNIX way.
>
> --
> Greetings
>
>    Pete
>
> Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a night, but set a man on
> fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

I'm not sure what MS Losedos is. Where is autoexec.bat? I searched but
couldn't find it. Sorry, I should've mentioned that I'm trying to run
it on Windows XP, and am following the directions from this link

http://www.stat.umu.se/forskarutbildning/courses/Computing/win32/install.html

Thanks again,
Hos

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 03.08.2007 um 23:32 schrieb Hosley:

> I'm not sure what MS Losedos is.

It's a synonym for an OS that claims it is win-ning – whatever. (It  
should have been Losedows.)

> Where is autoexec.bat?

Once it was in A: or C:, now it was used by me as a synonym for a set  
up mechanism. I am not doing that many things in MS that I knew how  
to set PATH and other environment variables.

--
Greetings

   Pete

Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
                                      -- Elbert Hubbard

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Hosley <kbrownk@gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2007 10:51:03 -0700
> 
> Bu the way, I can open R by itself (standalone) and it works fine.

How exactly do you open R "by itself"?

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Hosley]

On Aug 3, 5:32 pm, Eli Zaretskii <e...@gnu.org> wrote:
> > From: Hosley <kbro...@gmail.com>
> > Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2007 10:51:03 -0700
>
> > Bu the way, I can open R by itself (standalone) and it works fine.
>
> How exactly do you open R "by itself"?

I can open R by clicking on my desktop "R 2.5.0" icon, or by opening
from "C:\Program Files\R\R-2.5.0\bin\Rgui.exe"

I don't if it helps but the variable value for my PATH variable is
copy and pasted below:

C:\tools\bin;C:\devel\emacs\bin;C:\devel\texmf\miktex\bin;C:\devel
\ghostgum\ghostview\gsview\;c:\usr\local\bin;C:\devel\ghostgum\gs
\gs8.51\lib;C:\devel\ghostgum\gs\gs8.51\bin;C:\devel\MinGW\bin

I created this variable by following instructions, but I noticed there
is nothing about R, but again I'm not sure what that means.

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 04.08.2007 um 00:30 schrieb Hosley:

> I can open R by clicking on my desktop "R 2.5.0" icon, or by opening
> from "C:\Program Files\R\R-2.5.0\bin\Rgui.exe"

You certainly won't be running R's GUI in GNU Emacs, you'll need to  
find the "simple" command line oriented utility, R.exe or such. The  
Swedish URL you provided mentions C:\tools\bin\ to contain R.

BTW, AUCTeX 11.14 is a bit old. A modern GNU Emacs should come with  
AUCTeX 11.84.

--
Greetings

   Pete

There's something the technicians need to learn from the artists. If  
it isn't aesthetically pleasing, it's probably wrong.

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Reiner Steib]

On Sat, Aug 04 2007, Peter Dyballa wrote:

> BTW, AUCTeX 11.14 is a bit old. 

Correct.

> A modern GNU Emacs should come with AUCTeX 11.84.

The current AUCTeX version is 11.84, but it is not bundled with Emacs
mostly because of missing copyright assignments of earlier developers.

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
---ooO-(_)-Ooo---  |  PGP key available  |  http://rsteib.home.pages.de/

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Hosley <kbrownk@gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2007 15:30:18 -0700
> 
> > How exactly do you open R "by itself"?
> 
> I can open R by clicking on my desktop "R 2.5.0" icon, or by opening
> from "C:\Program Files\R\R-2.5.0\bin\Rgui.exe"

You need to add the directory "C:\Program Files\R\R-2.5.0\bin" to
your Path.

> I don't if it helps but the variable value for my PATH variable is
> copy and pasted below:
> 
> C:\tools\bin;C:\devel\emacs\bin;C:\devel\texmf\miktex\bin;C:\devel
> \ghostgum\ghostview\gsview\;c:\usr\local\bin;C:\devel\ghostgum\gs
> \gs8.51\lib;C:\devel\ghostgum\gs\gs8.51\bin;C:\devel\MinGW\bin

The above directory is not in Path, so perhaps just adding it will
solve the problem.

Note that you will need to restart Emacs after you modify Path,
otherwise Emacs will not notice the change.

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Marc Schwartz]

Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa@Web.DE> writes:

> Am 04.08.2007 um 00:30 schrieb Hosley:
>
>> I can open R by clicking on my desktop "R 2.5.0" icon, or by opening
>> from "C:\Program Files\R\R-2.5.0\bin\Rgui.exe"
>
> You certainly won't be running R's GUI in GNU Emacs, you'll need to
> find the "simple" command line oriented utility, R.exe or such. The
> Swedish URL you provided mentions C:\tools\bin\ to contain R.

No.  The 'tools' directory is for other purposes, such as compiling R from source
and/or creating add-on packages.

In this case, the terminal based executable on Windows, as per the link I 
provided is called 'Rterm.exe'.

Note also that the full path to the application, which on Windows has a space
in it, needs to use the '~1' contraction. So for R 2.5.1 it should be something
like:

  (setq inferior-R-program-name "C:/progra~1/R/R-2.5.1/bin/Rterm.exe")

if you are going to use that approach in .emacs. Again, that is described in the 
aforementioned ESS manual.

HTH,

Marc

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Hosley]

On Aug 4, 10:43 am, Marc Schwartz <marc_schwa...@comcast.net> wrote:
> Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyba...@Web.DE> writes:
> > Am 04.08.2007 um 00:30 schrieb Hosley:
>
> >> I can open R by clicking on my desktop "R 2.5.0" icon, or by opening
> >> from "C:\Program Files\R\R-2.5.0\bin\Rgui.exe"
>
> > You certainly won't be running R's GUI in GNU Emacs, you'll need to
> > find the "simple" command line oriented utility, R.exe or such. The
> > Swedish URL you provided mentions C:\tools\bin\ to contain R.
>
> No.  The 'tools' directory is for other purposes, such as compiling R from source
> and/or creating add-on packages.
>
> In this case, the terminal based executable on Windows, as per the link I
> provided is called 'Rterm.exe'.
>
> Note also that the full path to the application, which on Windows has a space
> in it, needs to use the '~1' contraction. So for R 2.5.1 it should be something
> like:
>
>   (setq inferior-R-program-name "C:/progra~1/R/R-2.5.1/bin/Rterm.exe")
>
> if you are going to use that approach in .emacs. Again, that is described in the
> aforementioned ESS manual.
>
> HTH,
>
> Marc

I want to alter the default in emacs, so I guess I want to create/
modify an initialization file (.emacs) with the command you've
provided above. I read the ESS manual and other stuff online, but I'm
still clueless! Where am I supposed to find or put this .emacs file?
Do I just create one in C:\devel\emacs\lisp by creating a text file,
typing in (setq inferior-R-program-name "C:/progra~1/R/R-2.5.1/bin/
Rterm.exe"), saving, then changing the format to .emacs? I know
literally nothing about command line programming, and much of this
manual is beyond my understanding.

Thanks again,
Hos

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[the matt]

On Aug 4, 3:15 pm, Hosley <kbro...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Aug 4, 10:43 am, Marc Schwartz <marc_schwa...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyba...@Web.DE> writes:
> > > Am 04.08.2007 um 00:30 schrieb Hosley:
>
> > >> I can open R by clicking on my desktop "R 2.5.0" icon, or by opening
> > >> from "C:\Program Files\R\R-2.5.0\bin\Rgui.exe"
>
> > > You certainly won't be running R's GUI in GNU Emacs, you'll need to
> > > find the "simple" command line oriented utility, R.exe or such. The
> > > Swedish URL you provided mentions C:\tools\bin\ to contain R.
>
> > No.  The 'tools' directory is for other purposes, such as compiling R from source
> > and/or creating add-on packages.
>
> > In this case, the terminal based executable on Windows, as per the link I
> > provided is called 'Rterm.exe'.
>
> > Note also that the full path to the application, which on Windows has a space
> > in it, needs to use the '~1' contraction. So for R 2.5.1 it should be something
> > like:
>
> >   (setq inferior-R-program-name "C:/progra~1/R/R-2.5.1/bin/Rterm.exe")
>
> > if you are going to use that approach in .emacs. Again, that is described in the
> > aforementioned ESS manual.
>
> > HTH,
>
> > Marc
>
> I want to alter the default in emacs, so I guess I want to create/
> modify an initialization file (.emacs) with the command you've
> provided above. I read the ESS manual and other stuff online, but I'm
> still clueless! Where am I supposed to find or put this .emacs file?
> Do I just create one in C:\devel\emacs\lisp by creating a text file,
> typing in (setq inferior-R-program-name "C:/progra~1/R/R-2.5.1/bin/
> Rterm.exe"), saving, then changing the format to .emacs? I know
> literally nothing about command line programming, and much of this
> manual is beyond my understanding.
>
> Thanks again,
> Hos


I really have to wonder if running R inside of Emacs is a good idea
for you.  It seems that you would be better off running R as a
standalone.

I don't know much about Windows init files, but I suspect  that a
quick internet search for "Windows Emacs startup files" would give
enough information to me so that I would'nt have to ask a newsgroup to
do my homework for me.  There is also the GNU emacs manual that is
pretty good at identifying the locations of all the startup scripts.

.emacs files are customized in Emacs-Lisp (a LISP dialect), and I
suspect that once you do figure out how to find this file, you will be
further overwhelmed with getting it customized.

I suggest that you stick with learning R (it is rather extensive in
its own right)

As to answer your question, if it (.emacs) isn't created, you will
need to create it and put into the directory of your "HOME" env
variable. If you don't have one defined, it will look in C:\

Just my thoughts.

Matt

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Hosley]

On Aug 4, 5:33 pm, the matt <m...@kettlewell.net> wrote:
> On Aug 4, 3:15 pm, Hosley <kbro...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Aug 4, 10:43 am, Marc Schwartz <marc_schwa...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > > Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyba...@Web.DE> writes:
> > > > Am 04.08.2007 um 00:30 schrieb Hosley:
>
> > > >> I can open R by clicking on my desktop "R 2.5.0" icon, or by opening
> > > >> from "C:\Program Files\R\R-2.5.0\bin\Rgui.exe"
>
> > > > You certainly won't be running R's GUI in GNU Emacs, you'll need to
> > > > find the "simple" command line oriented utility, R.exe or such. The
> > > > Swedish URL you provided mentions C:\tools\bin\ to contain R.
>
> > > No.  The 'tools' directory is for other purposes, such as compiling R from source
> > > and/or creating add-on packages.
>
> > > In this case, the terminal based executable on Windows, as per the link I
> > > provided is called 'Rterm.exe'.
>
> > > Note also that the full path to the application, which on Windows has a space
> > > in it, needs to use the '~1' contraction. So for R 2.5.1 it should be something
> > > like:
>
> > >   (setq inferior-R-program-name "C:/progra~1/R/R-2.5.1/bin/Rterm.exe")
>
> > > if you are going to use that approach in .emacs. Again, that is described in the
> > > aforementioned ESS manual.
>
> > > HTH,
>
> > > Marc
>
> > I want to alter the default in emacs, so I guess I want to create/
> > modify an initialization file (.emacs) with the command you've
> > provided above. I read the ESS manual and other stuff online, but I'm
> > still clueless! Where am I supposed to find or put this .emacs file?
> > Do I just create one in C:\devel\emacs\lisp by creating a text file,
> > typing in (setq inferior-R-program-name "C:/progra~1/R/R-2.5.1/bin/
> > Rterm.exe"), saving, then changing the format to .emacs? I know
> > literally nothing about command line programming, and much of this
> > manual is beyond my understanding.
>
> > Thanks again,
> > Hos
>
> I really have to wonder if running R inside of Emacs is a good idea
> for you.  It seems that you would be better off running R as a
> standalone.
>
> I don't know much about Windows init files, but I suspect  that a
> quick internet search for "Windows Emacs startup files" would give
> enough information to me so that I would'nt have to ask a newsgroup to
> do my homework for me.  There is also the GNU emacs manual that is
> pretty good at identifying the locations of all the startup scripts.
>
> .emacs files are customized in Emacs-Lisp (a LISP dialect), and I
> suspect that once you do figure out how to find this file, you will be
> further overwhelmed with getting it customized.
>
> I suggest that you stick with learning R (it is rather extensive in
> its own right)
>
> As to answer your question, if it (.emacs) isn't created, you will
> need to create it and put into the directory of your "HOME" env
> variable. If you don't have one defined, it will look in C:\
>
> Just my thoughts.
>
> Matt

I appreciate your advice. Unfortunately I have to follow the
instructions provided for the crash course (5 days 8 hours a day) I'm
required to take in R. I initially tried reading the manuals, but I
was getting overwhelmed with all of the scenarios that did not relate
to my issue. I was hoping there was an easy answer I was missing, and
I didn't mean for it to get to a point where others were doing my
homework for me (though I greatly appreciate all of the help and have
learned a lot in from what people have suggested). I'll read through
the manual again tomorrow, and if I find an answer, I'll post my own
step by step directions just in case it might help others.

Hos

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Hosley]

On Aug 4, 5:33 pm, the matt <m...@kettlewell.net> wrote:
> On Aug 4, 3:15 pm, Hosley <kbro...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Aug 4, 10:43 am, Marc Schwartz <marc_schwa...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > > Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyba...@Web.DE> writes:
> > > > Am 04.08.2007 um 00:30 schrieb Hosley:
>
> > > >> I can open R by clicking on my desktop "R 2.5.0" icon, or by opening
> > > >> from "C:\Program Files\R\R-2.5.0\bin\Rgui.exe"
>
> > > > You certainly won't be running R's GUI in GNU Emacs, you'll need to
> > > > find the "simple" command line oriented utility, R.exe or such. The
> > > > Swedish URL you provided mentions C:\tools\bin\ to contain R.
>
> > > No.  The 'tools' directory is for other purposes, such as compiling R from source
> > > and/or creating add-on packages.
>
> > > In this case, the terminal based executable on Windows, as per the link I
> > > provided is called 'Rterm.exe'.
>
> > > Note also that the full path to the application, which on Windows has a space
> > > in it, needs to use the '~1' contraction. So for R 2.5.1 it should be something
> > > like:
>
> > >   (setq inferior-R-program-name "C:/progra~1/R/R-2.5.1/bin/Rterm.exe")
>
> > > if you are going to use that approach in .emacs. Again, that is described in the
> > > aforementioned ESS manual.
>
> > > HTH,
>
> > > Marc
>
> > I want to alter the default in emacs, so I guess I want to create/
> > modify an initialization file (.emacs) with the command you've
> > provided above. I read the ESS manual and other stuff online, but I'm
> > still clueless! Where am I supposed to find or put this .emacs file?
> > Do I just create one in C:\devel\emacs\lisp by creating a text file,
> > typing in (setq inferior-R-program-name "C:/progra~1/R/R-2.5.1/bin/
> > Rterm.exe"), saving, then changing the format to .emacs? I know
> > literally nothing about command line programming, and much of this
> > manual is beyond my understanding.
>
> > Thanks again,
> > Hos
>
> I really have to wonder if running R inside of Emacs is a good idea
> for you.  It seems that you would be better off running R as a
> standalone.
>
> I don't know much about Windows init files, but I suspect  that a
> quick internet search for "Windows Emacs startup files" would give
> enough information to me so that I would'nt have to ask a newsgroup to
> do my homework for me.  There is also the GNU emacs manual that is
> pretty good at identifying the locations of all the startup scripts.
>
> .emacs files are customized in Emacs-Lisp (a LISP dialect), and I
> suspect that once you do figure out how to find this file, you will be
> further overwhelmed with getting it customized.
>
> I suggest that you stick with learning R (it is rather extensive in
> its own right)
>
> As to answer your question, if it (.emacs) isn't created, you will
> need to create it and put into the directory of your "HOME" env
> variable. If you don't have one defined, it will look in C:\
>
> Just my thoughts.
>
> Matt

It works! I found the .emacs file in my c:/home folder, and added the
command suggested earlier. It says it cannot find .R history, but I'm
assuming that R will that once I actually have a history. The next
step will be getting MikTex to install w/o error, which hopefully I
can find on my own. Thanks to all!

Hos

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 04.08.2007 um 23:15 schrieb Hosley:

> Where am I supposed to find or put this .emacs file?

In info mode you can read about the proper place of init files (C-h  
r) – I suppose it belongs to where the environment variable HOME points.

--
Greetings

   Pete

What’s the difference between OS X and Vista?

Microsoft employees are excited about OS X…

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Hosley <kbrownk@gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, 04 Aug 2007 14:15:16 -0700
> 
> Where am I supposed to find or put this .emacs file?
> Do I just create one in C:\devel\emacs\lisp by creating a text file,
> typing in (setq inferior-R-program-name "C:/progra~1/R/R-2.5.1/bin/
> Rterm.exe"), saving, then changing the format to .emacs?

No.  Just start Emacs, and type "C-x C-f ~/.emacs RET".  Emacs will
itself find the place which corresponds to your home directory
(abbreviated as "~" above).  .emacs is just a normal text file, so no
need to change its format.

In case you are not familiar with the Emacs key notation, "C-x" means
hold the Ctrl key and press x, and similar with C-f.  "RET" means the
[Enter] or [Return] key.

Once you open the .emacs file with the above command, type
(setq inferior-R-program-name "C:/progra~1/R/R-2.5.1/bin/Rterm.exe")
into that file, then save it with "C-x C-s".  Then restart Emacs (exit
and start it again).  That's it!

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Dieter Wilhelm]

Hosley <kbrownk@gmail.com> writes:

> I need to setup up R, ESS, and GNU Emacs for a class but am having
> problems. I'm trying to open R in Emacs by following these steps:
>
> 1. Open Emacs
> 2.Ctrl-x 2, to open 2 buffers
> 3. Selecting top buffer and clicking Alt-x

I guess here you need to load some R-mode for Emacs before you can
work with this statistics package in a useful way.

Maybe the page

http://stat.ethz.ch/ESS/

is of any help.

-- 
    Best wishes

    H. Dieter Wilhelm
    Darmstadt, Germany

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Marc Schwartz]

Hosley <kbrownk@gmail.com> writes:

> I need to setup up R, ESS, and GNU Emacs for a class but am having
> problems. I'm trying to open R in Emacs by following these steps:
>
> 1. Open Emacs
> 2.Ctrl-x 2, to open 2 buffers
> 3. Selecting top buffer and clicking Alt-x
> 4. Typing 'R' then hitting 'enter' twice
>
> This is supposed to open R in the top buffer but instead I get a error
> saying no such file or directory. It appears to be look into c:/devl/
> emacs/bin as the default. Yet if I type in the correct path (c:/
> program files/R/R-2.5.0/bin) manually I get the same error.
>
> Bu the way, I can open R by itself (standalone) and it works fine.
>
> I know this is about as novice as it gets, but I'm not used to these
> environments. Any suggestions would be great!
>
> Thanks,
> Hos

You might want to review this from the ESS Manual:

http://ess.r-project.org/Manual/ess.html#Microsoft-Windows-installation

Also, there is a dedicated ESS mailing list. More info here:

https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/ess-help

Finally, note that the current version of R is 2.5.1. You should get
the latest version from your local CRAN mirror.

HTH,

Marc Schwartz

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[Hosley]

On Aug 3, 11:14 pm, Marc Schwartz <marc_schwa...@comcast.net> wrote:
> Hosley <kbro...@gmail.com> writes:
> > I need to setup up R, ESS, and GNU Emacs for a class but am having
> > problems. I'm trying to open R in Emacs by following these steps:
>
> > 1. Open Emacs
> > 2.Ctrl-x 2, to open 2 buffers
> > 3. Selecting top buffer and clicking Alt-x
> > 4. Typing 'R' then hitting 'enter' twice
>
> > This is supposed to open R in the top buffer but instead I get a error
> > saying no such file or directory. It appears to be look into c:/devl/
> > emacs/bin as the default. Yet if I type in the correct path (c:/
> > program files/R/R-2.5.0/bin) manually I get the same error.
>
> > Bu the way, I can open R by itself (standalone) and it works fine.
>
> > I know this is about as novice as it gets, but I'm not used to these
> > environments. Any suggestions would be great!
>
> > Thanks,
> > Hos
>
> You might want to review this from the ESS Manual:
>
> http://ess.r-project.org/Manual/ess.html#Microsoft-Windows-installation
>
> Also, there is a dedicated ESS mailing list. More info here:
>
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/ess-help
>
> Finally, note that the current version of R is 2.5.1. You should get
> the latest version from your local CRAN mirror.
>
> HTH,
>
> Marc Schwartz

Thanks for letting me know about 2.5.1. Unfortunately it still cannot
be found by Emacs.

Also, I will try to read the manuals again, but a lot of the advice
I've come across indirectly relates to my issue and involves (meaning
it may or may not fix the issue) making a lot of changes that alter
the step by step instructions I was following, which I'm afraid to do
at this point. Obviously these programs are extremely sensitive to
small installation errors/typos and I don't want to dig myself further
into a hole.

Re: Can't open R in Emacs

[poti]

On 21:58 Fri 03 Aug     , Hosley wrote:
> On Aug 3, 11:14 pm, Marc Schwartz <marc_schwa...@comcast.net> wrote:
> > Hosley <kbro...@gmail.com> writes:
> > > I need to setup up R, ESS, and GNU Emacs for a class but am having
> > > problems. I'm trying to open R in Emacs by following these steps:
> >
> > > 1. Open Emacs
> > > 2.Ctrl-x 2, to open 2 buffers
> > > 3. Selecting top buffer and clicking Alt-x
> > > 4. Typing 'R' then hitting 'enter' twice
> >
> > > This is supposed to open R in the top buffer but instead I get a error
> > > saying no such file or directory. It appears to be look into c:/devl/
> > > emacs/bin as the default. Yet if I type in the correct path (c:/
> > > program files/R/R-2.5.0/bin) manually I get the same error.
> >
> > > Bu the way, I can open R by itself (standalone) and it works fine.
> >
> > > I know this is about as novice as it gets, but I'm not used to these
> > > environments. Any suggestions would be great!
> >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Hos
> >
> > You might want to review this from the ESS Manual:
> >
> > http://ess.r-project.org/Manual/ess.html#Microsoft-Windows-installation
> >
> > Also, there is a dedicated ESS mailing list. More info here:
> >
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/ess-help
> >
> > Finally, note that the current version of R is 2.5.1. You should get
> > the latest version from your local CRAN mirror.
> >
> > HTH,
> >
> > Marc Schwartz
> 
> Thanks for letting me know about 2.5.1. Unfortunately it still cannot
> be found by Emacs.

Is R in your path? If not, the following is edited down from
what I do in my startup file (you can put it in _emacs), which 
can be extended to add other programs:

(let* ((rpath (directory-file-name (mapconcat 'file-name-as-directory (list
"C:" "Program Files" "R" "R-2.5.0" "bin") ""))))
  (setq tlpath (list rpath)))
(setq exec-path (append tlpath exec-path))
(setenv "PATH" (concat (mapconcat (lambda (dir) (or dir ".")) tlpath
path-separator)  path-separator (getenv "PATH")))

> 
> Also, I will try to read the manuals again, but a lot of the advice
> I've come across indirectly relates to my issue and involves (meaning
> it may or may not fix the issue) making a lot of changes that alter
> the step by step instructions I was following, which I'm afraid to do
> at this point. Obviously these programs are extremely sensitive to
> small installation errors/typos and I don't want to dig myself further
> into a hole.


Aside from adding R to my path, placing the ess directory in 
Emacs/site-lisp/
and adding 

(require 'ess)

to _emacs works fine for me with no other alterations to my Emacs/ess/R installation. 

-Poti