[ESS] ess-transcript-clean-region

[Paul Johnson]

On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 8:51 PM, Cesar Rabak <cesar.rabak at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> According to the ESS (info) manual (in Entering commands -> Transcript ->
> Saving transcripts)
> <quote>
> ...then the command `M-x ess-transcript-clean-region' may be of use. This
> command works in any Emacs buffer, and removes all prompts and command
> output from an ESS transcript within the current region, leaving only the
> commands. ...
> </quote>
>
> However, in GNU Emacs 23.1.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600) of 2009-07-30 on
> SOFT-MJASON, ESS version 5.7.1 when I attempt to run this command in the
> *scratch* buffer in a region I pasted some lines from a transcript file,
> emacs freezes!
>


In Ubuntu 9.10 I see the same behavior with Emacs-23.1.1.  I think it
happens because you and I are not using ESS-transcript properly.

When you are finished running R, save the R output file with the
extension .Rt.  On my system, when I try to open that file in Emacs in
the same session, Emacs complains it is a read only file, as is *R*.
However, if I close Emacs completely, and then open the .Rt file, then
I can run


M-x ess-transcript-clean-buffer

And I get the desired result.

Incidentally, if you do end up in that "stuck" Emacs, the keystroke
C-g will break out of it, so Emacs is not "frozen", it is just not
doing what what you want.

I don't remember having this trouble getting files to work in
transcript mode before.  But I don't use it that often.

pj

-- 
Paul E. Johnson
Professor, Political Science
1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504
University of Kansas