[ESS] How do I customise the frame split when I run a line of R from ESS?

[Vitalie Spinu]

  >> Chris Evans <chrishold at psyctc.org>
  >> on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 20:13:04 +0100 wrote:

  > I am running Emacs with ESS both installed from the Ubuntu 12.04 defaults.  Help
  > says Emacs is:

  > "GNU Emacs 23.3.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.24.10)
  >  of 2012-03-25 on roseapple, modified by Debian"

  > ESS is ESS version 12.04-4

  > The default behaviour when I run a line of code from the icon in ESS seems to be
  > a vertical split.  I'd love to get back to what I'm used to which is a
  > horizontal split.  

This behavior is not controlled by ESS. And the default Emacs action is
to split horizontally (aka place the new window bellow) unless number of
lines in your current window is less than `split-height-threshold'. 

Default for split-height-threshold is 80. This is a way to much for
small and moderate sized screens. 

do M-x cus-var TAB RET spli-hei TAB RET

and set it to something less than number of lines in your full height
buffer.


  > I thought I could find .emacs and edit that but I'm failing at
  > square one: I can't find any .emacs file.  Using find seems to
  > confirm that there isn't one which seems bizarre.

Alternatively create an .emacs file in your home dir and put:

(setq split-height-threshold 50) ;;or even lower if needed


    Vitalie