From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Thomas S. Dye" Subject: Re: [babel] Uses for :session buffers Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 13:00:36 -1000 Message-ID: <973A6E58-572B-4D09-9CB2-C36C86D31C60@tsdye.com> References: <4AF1E793.2080205@cs.tu-berlin.de> <87vdhqlzhr.fsf@stats.ox.ac.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v936) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1N5oqM-0007cz-Nw for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:00:46 -0500 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1N5oqI-0007bm-1F for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:00:46 -0500 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=35649 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1N5oqH-0007be-MG for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:00:41 -0500 Received: from outbound-mail-138.bluehost.com ([67.222.39.28]:41438) by monty-python.gnu.org with smtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1N5oqH-0006wf-1U for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:00:41 -0500 In-Reply-To: <87vdhqlzhr.fsf@stats.ox.ac.uk> 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: Dan Davison Cc: Org Mode Mailing List On Nov 4, 2009, at 12:02 PM, Dan Davison wrote: > 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/ Aloha Dan, Thank you. This is extremely helpful, much more convenient than the path I was following. I think I'm beginning to understand what Eric meant when he wrote about emacs taking over his OS and org-mode taking over his emacs. It's astonishing to me how quickly and easily org-mode + org-babel took over my research project. The transition from idea to implementation seems almost frictionless now, and I'm just getting started. All the best, Tom > >>> >> >> 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 > > >