[ESS] R function arguments tips

[Gregor Gorjanc]

Hello Martin,

Sorry for late posting.

Martin Maechler wrote:
> Hi Gregor,
> 
> have  you read what was on ESS-help on this topic about a week
> ago?

Thank you for reminding me to read old posts in the list. I see now that 
  (as reported) R function argument tips show up only after sending some 
commands from R-mode buffer to R. I suggest that this is added to the 
documentation in essd-r-args.el file. I did read the docs in a file, but 
not the list. Please read further.

>>>>>> "GG" == Gregor Gorjanc <gregor.gorjanc at bfro.uni-lj.si>
>>>>>>     on Tue, 21 Aug 2007 21:49:51 +0200 writes:
> 
>     GG> For the record, I do see ARGS in echo area when I type either
>     GG> ess-r-args-show or ess-r-args-auto-show. However, the later (beside
>     GG> getting ^M) is not persistent as I expected from functions name.

I still get ^M (actually ^M^M) after ( if I issue M-x ess-r-args-auto-show.

Is there any way to always ensure that tips work even if commands were 
not (yet) transfered to the *R* buffer? Reading the essd-r-args.el file 
I noticed this in ess-r-args-auto-show:

"... If there's an ess-process, automatically show arguments
and their default values of an R function. ..."

This is what I thought ess-r-args-auto-show will do, but I get ARGS in 
echo area only for the first time of pressing ( and a double ^M after 
it. Then after pressing ayn key echo area clears. It would be nice to 
get ARGS, whenever on is within () of a function. Maybe I want too much. 
For now I just added keybinding for ess-r-args-show so I am happy;) This 
is much more convenient than calling ?function or args(function) every 
time I forget what are the argument names.

Finnaly, I think that it would be beneficial to show tips also in *R* 
buffer. I also believe in the source file and agree with you, but 
sometimes I just have to do something fast and temporary in the *R* 
buffer and ... It is a pitty that such a helpful function would be 
limited to R-mode buffer.

Thank you again for providing this in ESS.

Regards, Gregor