From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Dan Davison Subject: Re: [babel] Uses for :session buffers Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:02:56 -0500 Message-ID: <87vdhqlzhr.fsf@stats.ox.ac.uk> References: <4AF1E793.2080205@cs.tu-berlin.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Return-path: Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1N5nwb-0007Um-Ql for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:03:09 -0500 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1N5nwX-0007S4-SD for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:03:09 -0500 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=38142 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1N5nwX-0007Rl-MK for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:03:05 -0500 Received: from markov.stats.ox.ac.uk ([163.1.210.1]:54873) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1N5nwX-0006nU-08 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:03:05 -0500 In-Reply-To: <4AF1E793.2080205@cs.tu-berlin.de> (Stephan Schmitt's message of "Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:44:03 +0100") List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Stephan Schmitt Cc: Org Mode Mailing List Stephan Schmitt writes: > Thomas S. Dye wrote: >> Aloha all, >> >> I'm trying to comprehend the possibilities created by org-babel, and >> would like to draw on the experience of others if I could. >> >> I recently discovered the buffer created by :session. In my case, >> this is an R session that I am building to track the data collection >> phase of a research project. I was delighted to find that it >> appears to have recorded everything my org file had done in that >> session. I have a vague idea that it might be useful to save this >> as a log to prove that all the little source blocks in my org file >> indeed were called and executed successfully. >> >> I'm wondering: do other org-babelers use the :session buffer? How? >> For what purpose? Hi Tom, For R users, org-babel is intended to be used in conjunction with ESS[1] and personally I continue to use the inferior-ESS mode *R* buffer (aka R session buffer) in a similar way to when I was using ESS alone. So for example 1. In an ess-mode (R) edit buffer, I use the ess-eval-* family of functions to evaluate lines, regions, etc. In particular, to debug a code block I switch to an R edit buffer with C-c ', then evaluate line-by-line using C-c C-n (ess-eval-line-and-step).[2] 2. In an ess-mode (R) edit buffer, I use C-z (ess-switch-to-end-of-ESS) to switch to the R session buffer (inferior-ESS mode) 3. In the R session buffer, I try out evaluation of expressions, query data structure contents with str(), list objects in the environment, etc. 4. There are many other nice facilities provided by ESS when working in an R edit buffer with an associated active R session, such as object name completion, displaying formal arguments to functions while you type, etc. I believe that to some extent you can work in a similar way with interactive python and ruby sessions but personally I don't have much experience with that yet. It was always a key aim of org-babel (made easy by org-mode's C-c ') that it should not get in the way of whatever other emacs facilities exist for working with interactive emacs sessions in a particular language. Incidentally, maintaining this sort of automatic compatibility with language-specific software like ESS is one reason why I am slightly skeptical about the value of using org-babel in a "dual major-mode" fashion as was suggested in a separate thread today. Dan Footnotes: [1] http://ess.r-project.org/ >> > > Another advantage: you can set a variable in one source block > and access it in the next one. > > Greetings, > Stephan > >> Any tips or advice will be appreciated. >> >> All the best, >> Tom >> >> Thomas S. Dye, Ph.D. > > > _______________________________________________ > Emacs-orgmode mailing list > Remember: use `Reply All' to send replies to the list. > Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org > http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode