[ESS] M-x R-version

[Vitalie Spinu]

  >> "Richard M. Heiberger" <rmh at temple.edu>
  >> on Sat, 23 Mar 2013 00:36:13 -0400 wrote:

  > ESS doesn't know the names.  And you don't have to keep updating ESS (at
  > least, not for for this reason).

  > Part  of the ESS start up is to look for all R** executables in the
  > standard places.  I used fake notation in this
  > sentence, with the implication that the first '*' means all the valid
  > prefixes, and the second '*' anything that starts with
  > one of those.  Details depend on operating system.

  > Advanced ESS users who want to follow this may start with ess-site.el and
  > look for the line
  > ;;; Create functions for calling different (older or newer than default)

  > then follow it from there.  Repeat, this is not for the casual ESS user.

Would be good to improve the non-windows part. I also have plenty of
simlinks in my path, all starting with R-. And nothing is recognized.  

On the other side this is really non-emacs way of doing it. 

Arguably, a better approach would be *not* to look for versions at
startup, but rather add an universal argument to R. So when an user does
C-u M-x R, the executables are searched dynamically in the system and
emacs paths, and the user is asked for version to choose.

    Vitalie