[ESS] XEmacs, ESS on Cygwin and R on Windows XP: inferrior-ess-prompt problem

[Vasiliev, Boris]

> Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2011 09:53:40 -0500
> From: Rodney Sparapani <rsparapa at mcw.edu>
> To: <ess-help at stat.math.ethz.ch>
> Subject: Re: [ESS] XEmacs, ESS on Cygwin and R on Windows XP:
> 	inferrior-ess-prompt problem
> Message-ID: <isashk$dv4$1 at dough.gmane.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; format=flowed
> 
> Vasiliev, Boris wrote:
> > Good morning,
> >
> > I am setting up a Windows XP system with Cygwin, XEmacs, R, and ESS
> > and I run into a problem - M-x R does not start an R process.  I
would
> > greatly appreciate your help or comments on how to approach the
> > problem.
> >
> > For R, I have R for Windows, version 2.13.0, with executables in
> > c:/R/R-2.13.0/bin/i386.
> >
> > For XEmacs, I use XEmacs 21.4 (Patch 22) that is offered in the
> > latest release of Cygwin 1.7.9.   XEmacs runs in Windows native GUI
mode
> > (not X11 or console mode)
> >
> > For ESS, I installed ESS 5.13 in the cygwin directory tree at
> > /usr/local/share/xemacs/site-packages/ess-5.13
> >
> > The initialization file for XEmacs, ~/.xemacs/init.el, has only few
> > lines:
> >
> > ;; ?need this definition to get XEmacs to load ESS; otherwise ESS
> > ;; complains?
> > (defun w32-short-file-name (x)
> > "Placeholder for use with XEmacs.  The real function in Emacs
returns
> > 8.3 version of full path name of the
> > Argument.  This placeholder returns its argument only."
> > x)
> > (setq inferior-R-program-name
/cygdrive/c/R/R-2.13.0/bin/i386/Rterm.exe)
> > (require 'ess-site)
> >
> > XEmacs recognizes ESS (there is an *ESS* buffer), but when I use
"M-x
> > R" to start R XEmacs hangs. In the *ESS* buffer there are messages
that
> > ESS is setting up communication with R.  The final line is
> > "Making Process...Buf *R*, Proc R, Prog
> > /cygdrive/c/R/R-2.13.0/bin/i386/Rterm.exe Start file=nil,
Args=--ess."
> > After a while, a message appears in the command buffer: "Timeout
> > waiting for prompt.  Check inferior-ess-prompt or ess-loop-timeout."
> > Surprisingly, if an .R file is already open I can start R by
pressing
> > the R button below the menus.
> >
> > From looking at the forums, this is a known problem but I could not
> > find a solution.  Apart from installing XEmacs, ESS, and R in the
same
> > environment, either Windows or Cygwin, is there a simple way to
solve
> > this problem?  (I am hesitant to install R on Cygwin because the R
Team
> > does support the Cygwin port but it supports the Windows version.  I
> > am hesitant to install XEmacs on Windows because I keep most of my
work
> > in Cygwin directory tree and I am not sure how well XEmacs on
Windows
> > will handle it.)
> >
> > Regards,
> > Boris.
> 
> Hi Boris:
> 
> Shouldn't that be ...
> (setq inferior-R-program-name "/cygdrive/c/R/R-
> 2.13.0/bin/i386/Rterm.exe")
> 
> If that is not the problem or it does not help, then read on for more
> radical tips (heavy XEmacs users look away now)...
> 
> Is there some reason that you need to use XEmacs?  I have never been a
> fan of XEmacs on Windows.  I find XEmacs to be pretty serviceable on
> Linux and Unix, but I have never liked the Windows or Mac OS X
> versions.
>   Some times switching from XEmacs to Emacs (or vice versa)
> will fix these kinds of problems.
> 
> Rodney
> 

Hi Rodney,

Thank you for quick reply.  Indeed the quotes should have been in place
but 
it does not solve the problem.

I do not have any strong emotional attachments to XEmacs and I'll try
Emacs 
instead. If this does not work I'll shift the whole set-up - R,
(X)Emacs, ESS -
to Windows XP.

Regards,
Boris.