[ESS] ESS 5.4 released
Martin Maechler
maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch
Mon Jun 8 18:04:45 CEST 2009
Dear ESS-help readers,
> The ESS Developers proudly announce the release of ESS
> 5.4
available at http://ess.r-project.org/ from the "Download" tab.
After the long 5.3.x series, with the last previous release 5.3.11,
we have decided to simplify the numbering scheme from an x.y.z
to an x.y one.
The documentation has been re-organized partly, aiming for
improved clarity.
Also, several buglets have been fixed, for R and S, as well as
SAS and BUGS, see the *New Features* below.
For the ESS core team,
Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich
The rest of the 'ANNOUNCE' file :
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Emacs Speaks Statistics (ESS) provides an intelligent, consistent
interface between the user and the software. ESS interfaces with
S-PLUS, R, SAS, BUGS and other statistical analysis packages under the
Unix, Microsoft Windows, and Apple Mac OS operating systems. ESS is a
package for the GNU Emacs and XEmacs text editors whose features ESS
uses to streamline the creation and use of statistical software. ESS
knows the syntax and grammar of statistical analysis packages and
provides consistent display and editing features based on that
knowledge. ESS assists in interactive and batch execution of
statements written in these statistical analysis languages.
ESS is freely available under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Please read the file COPYING which comes with the distribution, for
more information about the license. For more detailed information,
please read the README files that come with ESS.
1.1 Getting the Latest Version
==============================
The latest released version of ESS is always available on the web at:
ESS web page (http://ess.r-project.org) or StatLib
(http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/general/ESS/)
The latest development version of ESS is available via
`https://svn.R-project.org/ESS/', the ESS Subversion repository. If
you have a Subversion client (see `http://subversion.tigris.org/'), you
can download the sources using:
% svn checkout https://svn.r-project.org/ESS/trunk PATH
which will put the ESS files into directory PATH. Later, within
that directory, `svn update' will bring that directory up to date.
Windows-based tools such as TortoiseSVN are also available for
downloading the files. Alternatively, you can browse the sources with a
web browser at: ESS SVN site (https://svn.r-project.org/ESS/trunk).
However, please use a subversion client instead to minimize the load
when retrieving.
If you remove other versions of ESS from your emacs load-path, you
can then use the development version by adding the following to .emacs:
(load "/path/to/ess-svn/lisp/ess-site.el")
Note that https is required, and that the SSL certificate for the
Subversion server of the R project is
Certificate information:
- Hostname: svn.r-project.org
- Valid: from Jul 16 08:10:01 2004 GMT until Jul 14 08:10:01 2014 GMT
- Issuer: Department of Mathematics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, CH
- Fingerprint: c9:5d:eb:f9:f2:56:d1:04:ba:44:61:f8:64:6b:d9:33:3f:93:6e:ad
(currently, there is no "trusted certificate"). You can accept this
certificate permanently and will not be asked about it anymore.
1.2 Current Features
====================
* Languages Supported:
* S family (S 3/4, S-PLUS 3.x/4.x/5.x/6.x/7.x/8.x, and R)
* SAS
* BUGS/JAGS
* Stata
* XLispStat including Arc and ViSta
* Editing source code (S family, SAS, BUGS/JAGS, XLispStat)
* Syntactic indentation and highlighting of source code
* Partial evaluation of code
* Loading and error-checking of code
* Source code revision maintenance
* Batch execution (SAS, BUGS/JAGS)
* Use of imenu to provide links to appropriate functions
* Interacting with the process (S family, SAS, XLispStat)
* Command-line editing
* Searchable Command history
* Command-line completion of S family object names and file
names
* Quick access to object lists and search lists
* Transcript recording
* Interface to the help system
* Transcript manipulation (S family, XLispStat)
* Recording and saving transcript files
* Manipulating and editing saved transcripts
* Re-evaluating commands from transcript files
* Help File Editing (R)
* Syntactic indentation and highlighting of source code.
* Sending Examples to running ESS process.
* Previewing
1.3 Requirements
================
ESS is most likely to work with current/recent versions of the following
statistical packages: R/S-PLUS, SAS, Stata and JAGS. The one exception
is BUGS which is quite old, but should still work.
ESS supports current/recent versions of GNU Emacs and XEmacs. Most
notably, the GNU Emacs 22 series and XEmacs 21.4.14 or higher
(beta/pre-release versions are NOT SUPPORTED).
1.4 Stability
=============
Versions 5.3.x are meant to be release-quality versions. While some
new features are being introduced, we are cleaning up and improving the
interface. We know about some remaining documentation inconsistencies.
Patches or suggested fixes with bug reports are much appreciated!
1.5 Mailing List
================
There is a mailing list for discussions and announcements relating to
ESS. Join the list by sending an e-mail with "subscribe ess-help" (or
"help") in the body to <ess-help-request at stat.math.ethz.ch>;
contributions to the list may be mailed to
<ess-help at stat.math.ethz.ch>. Rest assured, this is a fairly
low-volume mailing list.
The purposes of the mailing list include
* helping users of ESS to get along with it.
* discussing aspects of using ESS on Emacs and XEmacs.
* suggestions for improvements.
* announcements of new releases of ESS.
* posting small patches to ESS.
1.6 Reporting Bugs
==================
Please send bug reports, suggestions etc. to
<ESS-bugs at stat.math.ethz.ch>
The easiest way to do this is within Emacs by typing
`M-x ess-submit-bug-report'
This also gives the maintainers valuable information about your
installation which may help us to identify or even fix the bug.
If Emacs reports an error, backtraces can help us debug the problem.
Type "M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET". Then run the
command that causes the error and you should see a *Backtrace* buffer
containing debug information; send us that buffer.
Note that comments, suggestions, words of praise and large cash
donations are also more than welcome.
1.7 Authors
===========
* A.J. Rossini (mailto:blindglobe at gmail.com)
* Richard M. Heiberger (mailto:rmh at temple.edu)
* Kurt Hornik (mailto:Kurt.Hornik at R-project.org)
* Martin Maechler (mailto:maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch)
* Rodney A. Sparapani (mailto:rsparapa at mcw.edu)
* Stephen Eglen (mailto:stephen at gnu.org)
1.8 License
===========
ESS is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later
version.
ESS is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
in the file COPYING in the same directory as this file for more details.
1.9 New Features
================
Changes/New Features in 5.4:
* ESS[SAS]: The long overdue change from `make-regexp' to
`regexp-opt' for font-locking is complete. The new
`regexp-opt' is now the default since it is better than the
old code in many ways (and especially more maintainable).
However, there are certainly some special cases missed (bug
reports and patches welcome!). Setting
`ess-sas-run-regexp-opt' to `nil' will result in the old code
being used.
* ESS[BUGS] and ESS[JAGS]: typing `=' now results in `<-'.
* ESS[R] function arguments "show" `(ess-r-args-show)' now
uses the new `(tooltip-show-at-point)' contributed by Erik
Iverson.
* Toolbar icons now also work in (beta) Emacs 23.
* ESS[S]: New function `ess-change-directory' for setting both
emacs' current directory and the directory of an *R* or *S*
buffer.
* ESS[S] when transient-mark-mode is true, the mark is now kept,
rather than deactivated, thanks to a patch from David Reitter.
Changes/New Features in 5.3.11:
* ESS[SAS]: work around bug in Emacs 22.2 & 22.3 which fails to
set case-fold fontification automatically.
* Rd mode: support new keyword 'Rdversion'
* ESS[R]: now again works with Emacs 21.x
Changes/New Features in 5.3.10:
* Fixed noweb-mode bug accidentally introduced into 5.3.9
* In noweb-mode, e.g., Rnw-mode, electric "<" also inserts
closing "@". Further, the code chunk boundaries are better
kept up-to-date, such that code[R] <-> text[LaTeX] minor
mode switching should happen more reliably.
* In noweb-mode, fix a buglet in rare [Enter] or [Tab]
behavior; further, by default disable the former `[[' ..
`]]' code-protection-when-filling behavior which has been
found to be buggy.
Changes/New Features in 5.3.9:
* ESS[SAS]: evince PDF viewer now supported as well; search
order: evince, Xpdf, Adobe/Acrobat Reader
* ESS[R]: added support for Roxygen, potentially to be extended.
* ESS[S] (and R): inferior (`*R*') and transcript modes no
longer fontify language keywords (such as `for', `in', etc).
* iESS[Stata]: Customize the `ess-sta-delimiter-friendly'
setting to `t' to convert embedded semi-colons to newlines
for Stata processing.
* Sweave fix for embedded blanks in PDF reader and PDF files
* Several fixes for Major Mode Convention violations in
`ess-mode' and `noweb-mode'.
* ESS[JAGS]: `M-x comment-region' now available!
* ESS[S] The `ess-swv-*' commands (and keybindings) are now in
a submenu of the "Noweb" menu, when editing Sweave files.
Changes/New Features in 5.3.8:
* ESS[JAGS]: more separation from ESS[BUGS] (as much as is
currently planned); now `C-c C-c' on an empty `.jmd' creates
a template as it should; symbolic links are created for CODA
output so BOA is happy: from `index.txt' to `.ind' and
`chain#.txt' to `#.out'
* ESS[SAS]: buffer-local `ess-sas-submit-command' and
`ess-sas-submit-command-options' now recognized by
`ess-sas-submit-region'
* ESS[S]: When trying to evaluate code in an S language buffer
and there is no associated process, now start R
automatically instead of signalling an error. Also, restart
R if there is an associated process which is not running.
However, do not start R just via the "electric" `('
(`ess-r-args-auto-show').
* ESS[S]: For (one-line) functions withOUT '{ .. }' bodys, the
end of function is now correctly found more often. This
notably improves `C-c C-c'
(`ess-eval-function-or-paragraph-and-step').
* ESS[JAGS]: cleanup/re-organization of elisp code; symbolic
links for CODA output are now only created by the new JAGS
`system' command in version 1.0.3; specify whether this
command is available via `ess-jags-system'; if not present,
then no links are created so that the `*shell*' buffer does
not become unresponsive during the batch run
Changes/New Features in 5.3.7:
* ESS: `ess-default-style' now *is* customizable, i.e.,
changing its value in `~/.emacs' now does have the desired
effect.
* ESS: `ess-font-lock-mode' is a new variable (default: t)
which controls whether font-locking is enabled in ESS buffers.
* ESS[R]: for XEmacs on Windows; another tweak to find R
versions
* ESS[SAS]: font-locking updated for ODS and SAS Bayesian
Procedures; a more consistent handling of SAS options by
`ess-sas-submit-command-options' which is buffer-local;
portable snooze for MS Windows via customize-able
`ess-sleep-for' (floats welcome); Xpdf now supported as a PDF
viewer
* ESS[Rnw]: now also works with "emacs -nw" and Emacs 22.
* ESS[JAGS]: now requires JAGS 1.0 (see the new ESS for JAGS
help section for more information): both need work;
suggestions welcome
* ESS[R]: [TAB] completion now uses the R-internal completion
mechanism (for R >= 2.5.0).
* ESS[R] ([S]): interpretation of "_" as assignment has been
removed in `ess-continued-statement-p' for R and S.
* several internal code cleanups.
* ESS[R]: An experimental version of a new command `Rgui' on MS
Windows to send lines directly from emacs to `Rgui' is
available in file `lisp/essd-rgui.el'. Preliminary
documentation is in file `doc/rgui-doc.txt'.
Changes/New Features in 5.3.6:
* ESS: for XEmacs, using "gnuclient" (without a "-q") works for
things like fix() after M-x gnuserv-start has been done.
* ESS[R]: M-x R-newest should now work in more situations on MS
Windows, e.g., when R has been installed in a non-default
"ProgramFiles" directory tree. In these cases, there's no
need to specify the name (and full path) of the R program
anymore.
* ESS[R]: For XEmacs, startup (with new tooltip code) works
again.
Changes/New Features in 5.3.5:
* ESS[R] a new defun is available, `M-x R-newest', which will
start the newest version of R that it can find on your system.
* ESS[R] add Sven Hartenstein's "R function arguments tips"
functionality, via new file `../lisp/essd-r-args.el'. Note
that this includes an "electric "("" behavior inside `R-mode'
which is _active by default_ and can be customized via
`ess-r-args-electric-paren'; i.e., use `(setq
ess-r-args-electric-paren nil)' to turn it off. Further,
`ess-r-args-show-as' allows to switch to the "tooltip" mode.
* ESS: functions `ess-get-pdf-viewer' and *-ps-viewer; built on
new customizable variables `ess-pdf-viewer-pref' and
`ess-ps-viewer-pref'; currently used in `ess-swv-PDF' and
`*-PS'.
* ESS[R] Improved `ess-swv-PDF' to run pdf viewer only if
pdflatex was ok
* ESS[R] Improved `ess-swv-weave' to start R automatically if
none is running.
* ESS: Do no longer ask _which_ ESS process to use if there is
only one.
Changes/New Features in 5.3.4:
* ESS[R] now better work with options(error=recover); and the
new default of CHM help files on windows.
* ESS[R] some more cleanup in the "sweave" functions
* miscellaneous fixes
Changes/New Features in 5.3.3:
* ESS[S] fix buglet (5.3.2 only) which left command prompt in
"execute buffer" and hence help files.
* new customizable variable `ess-display-buffer-reuse-frames'
set to true (which changes default behavior) such that
execution or help *frames* are reused.
Changes/New Features in 5.3.2:
* Classic BUGS now supported by `(require 'essd-bugs)' with
ESS[BUGS] and JAGS by `(require 'essd-jags)' with
ESS[JAGS]. But, only one of them can be used at a time
since they don't play nice together. Also, `C-c C-c'
is now bound to the function `ess-bugs-next-action'
(`F12' has been retired). And finally, note that
`essl-bug.el' is deprecated and the replacement is
`essl-bugs.el'.
* ESS[R] Improved some of the "Sweave-make" functions (yet
scarcely documented) in `ess-swv.el'.
* ESS[S] No longer mess with .Last.value (nor in other
"languages").
Changes/New Features in 5.3.1:
* See the docs for 2 ways to install ESS for XEmacs
1. by uncommenting the XEmacs part of Section 1
of `Makeconf' and performing `make install'
2. by unpacking either `ess-5.3.1.tgz' or
`ess-5.3.1.zip' into
`PREFIX/lib/xemacs/site-packages' on unix or
`PREFIX\XEmacs\site-packages' on windows
* ESS[R]: fixed bugs so that Rterm.exe can be found by XEmacs
* ESS[S]: `ess-toggle-S-assign-key' is slightly changed; in
particular, the default `ess-assign-key' is now `C-x ='.
* ESS[R]: `M-x R-site-search' is a new (slightly experimental)
utility similar to R's `RSiteSearch(..)' but with the
advantage of using Emacs' preferred browser, see
`browse-url-browser-function'
Changes/New Features in 5.3.0:
* ESS[BUGS]: sanely re-format statistical output, `.bog', from
scientific notation to numbers rounded with 4 decimal places
with `M-x ess-bugs-sci-round-to-4-dp'.
* The keys for navigating among section headings in help buffers
worked, but only for one language per session; they should
now work for multiple languages. (They were also broken on
Windows machines.)
* ESS[S] long standing buglets in the internal logic for loading
lisp code on Windows. Particularly fixed behavior in help
mode with S-plus GUI.
* New variable, `ess-use-inferior-program-name-in-buffer-name',
which enables using the executable name instead of the
dialect name for R. Feature request.
* ESS[S] `ess-execute-screen-options' now also works correctly
when there is more than one window *side-by-side* in the same
frame and runs in the correct buffer also when there is more
than one S buffer.
* iESS[S] new functions `ess-eval-paragraph-and-step' and
`ess-eval-function-or-paragraph-and-step' are bound to keys
`C-c C-p' and `C-c C-c' respectively and to the menu in
ESS-mode; also bound in the help mode (for evaluating
examples).
* ESS[S] new function `ess-toggle-S-assign-key' allows to
assign the " <- " insertion to an arbitrary key.
More information about the ESS-help
mailing list