[ESS] ess installation on Windows [forwarded]

[Zachary Skrivanek]

[This should have gone to the ESS-help mailing list, but was sent to MM]

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Message-ID: <20050809193257.58048.qmail at web33602.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
From: Zachary Skrivanek <zskrivan at yahoo.com>
To: maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: ess installation
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 12:32:56 -0700 (PDT)

Martin,

Hi!  I was able to install the emacs program on XP.  Unfortunately I can't get the ess to load.  The instructions are a bit oblique, perhaps you could help clarify them.  In particular, I think the problem lies in:
 

   
Add the line 

          (load "/PATH/ess-site")     

to your .emacs (or _emacs) file (or default.el or site-init.el, for a site-wide installation). Replace /PATH above with the value of ess-lisp-directory as defined in ess-site.el. Use forwardslashes /. (GNU Emacs uses the filename %HOME%/.emacs and XEmacs uses the filename %HOME%/.xemacs/init.el for the initialization file.) 

Now when I type 'set HOME' at the DOS prompt I get a a directory and I assume that this is where I place the _emacs file.  (I can't create .emacs files on XP.)  So now the question is:  what is PATH?  Per the instructions PATH is "the value of ess-lisp-directory as defined in ess-site.el".  But in this file ess-lisp-directory appears to be defined in an algorithm:
 
*********************************************************

(defvar ess-lisp-directory

(if (and (boundp 'load-file-name) load-file-name)

;; A nice default

(directory-file-name (file-name-directory

(file-truename load-file-name)))

(defun find-load-file-directory nil

"Locate directory in which load-file sits."

(interactive)

(let ((load-file-directory)

(beg (point)))

(list-command-history)

(set-buffer "*Command History*")

(goto-char (point-min))

(search-forward "(load-file ")

(goto-char (1+ (match-end 0)))

(setq beg (point))

(end-of-line)(search-backward "/")

(goto-char (match-end 0))

(setq load-file-directory

(expand-file-name (buffer-substring beg (point))))

(kill-buffer "*Command History*")

load-file-directory))

(directory-file-name (find-load-file-directory)))

"Directory containing ess-site.el and other ESS files.")

*****************************************************************

So my best guess is that this is the path containing the lisp files.  I hence typed this path into PATH and wrote:

(load "C:/Documents and Settings/c020043_sa/Desktop/emacs bin/ess-5.2.0/lisp/ess-site")

But this doesn't work.  Would you tell me what exactly I am supposed to type into PATH?  Or, alternatively, how can I install ESS on my pc for S-mode use, in particular?  Thanks!

 

Sincerely,

Zak
-------------------------------------------------------------
 

Andrew,
 
Hi!  I am trying to install emacs and ess on my XP machine.  I am having difficulties and one of the explanations could be that the files are not being unpacked correctly.  According to the instructions I can find an appopriate utility, djtarnt, at the following site:
 
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/windows/emacs/utilities/i386/
 
But djtarnt.exe does not exist here.  In fact neither do the directories 'utilities' nor 'i386' exist.  Would you please tell me where I can get this program from so I can install emacs and ess?
 
Sincerely,
Zachary Skrivanek

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