[ESS] Emacs finding "R" on Windows {was "Release of ESS 5.3.5"}

[Stephen Eglen]

hi Phil,

 >   PL> "c:/Program Files/R/R-2.5.1/bin/R.exe"
 > 
 >   PL> will work iff R is in the path.
 > 
 >   MM> (which it is not, I think, after a default installation of R on windows)
 > 
 > Sure. The ESS documentation says to put it in the path I think. Personally, I
 > would prefer to not have to do this; system path fiddling in a pain in the ass
 > and has to be done for each machine. 

Yes, I agree -- if users do not have to touch PATH on windows, this is
one less thing for the new user to do.

 > http://www.ourcomments.org/Emacs/EmacsW32Util.html
 > 
 > I don't know how widely used this is among the ESS or Emacs on Windows
 > community in general. 
Certainly new to me, but I'm no windows user...


 > Well, just as a start, this returns the latest R version if you are using
 > EmacsW32 and have not told R not to modify the registry. 

(Reading the double negative in this, I presume this means that by
default, when installing R, it will modify the registry?).

 > It would be
 > interesting to run a straw poll; if people eval-region and see how many get
 > the correct answer. 

Great, thanks.  It would be great if a few windows users could try
this code that Phil posted.

Stephen