[ESS] Beta testing for ESS 5.2.9

[Martin Maechler]

Dear ESS users,

we are planning to release ESS 5.2.9  in a few days.
It currently has

-----------------------------

Changes/New Features in 5.2.9:
   * ESS[R] for Windows:  the \ directory character bug with respect to
     ess-load-file has been eradicated.

   * iESS[SAS]: `C-c C-r' and `C-c C-b' once again work as intended and
     documented.

   * ESS[S]: M-x ess-fix-EQ-assign is a bit more agressive.

   * ESS[S]: Imenu now also shows setAs(), etc.

   * ESS[R]: R function pattern enhanced with underlying code such that
     `M-C-a' (`ess-beginning-of-function') etc now work for many more
     cases, including S4 method definitions.

   * iESS[R]: myOwnhelp(1) no longer wrongly triggers help(1).

   * ESS[R]: Improved detection of bogus help buffers: valid help
     buffers containing with the string "no documentation"(e.g. contour)
     were being treated as bogus.

   * ESS[R]: In R help buffers, if `options("help.try.all.packages" =
     TRUE)' then `?rlm' will list which packages rlm is defined in.
     This help  buffer is not bogus, but instead is now relabelled
     "*help[R](rlm in  packages)*".

   * ESS[STA]: add "//" as comment starting character to syntax-table.

-----------------------------

We ESS developers have been using this version for a while and
not found (new) problems; however, our usages are limited to "our own
ways" and to the platforms we work on. Hence, we would be glad
if some of you could beta test ESS, particularly on platforms
that we don't use ourselves, e.g.,
- XEmacs on Windows
- everything on MacOS X
- versions of emacs older than 21.3, ...

There is at least one known (but rare) bug that doesn't seem
easily and quickly fixable, namely the one reported by David Reitter
on "pop-up-frames and opening windows" in the thread started on
17 Aug 2005.

You can always get the current development version of ESS
from
    https://svn.R-project.org/ESS/trunk/
or  https://svn.R-project.org/ESS/trunk/lisp/ for the emacs lisp files
    (you need to acknowledge a certificate once)

Either replace all your *.el files in your current ESS version's
./lisp/ directory with the development ones (and remove any
*.elc you might have!), or get the full thing,
most easily a subversion client, using something
    svn co https://svn.R-project.org/ESS/trunk ess-beta
and make sure you point your emacs to the new ess-lisp directory
by something like

    (require 'ess-site "............../ess-beta/lisp/ess-site")
		        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
			correct path
--

Feedback is very welcome.

Martin Maechler
Seminar fuer Statistik, ETH Zurich SWITZERLAND