[ESS] file completion R script buffer not auto completing

[Stephen Sefick]

Thank you both for the useful comments. I will try setting C-c TAB
in .emacs, and it is useful to know about a file needing a ., /, etc. I
use ESS instead of R Studio now, and I like it very much. I appreciate
all of the work that went into this software. Thank you! 
kindest regards,

Stephen

On Thu, 2016-12-15 at 13:51 -0500, Ista Zahn wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 15, 2016 at 12:32 PM, Martin Maechler
> <maechler using stat.math.ethz.ch> wrote:
> >>>>>> Stephen Sefick <ssefick using auburn.edu>
> >>>>>>     on Wed, 14 Dec 2016 11:45:49 -0600 writes:
> >
> >     > Hello:
> >     > Long time R user; new ESS user. Thank you all so much for this wonderful
> >     > IDE. I am having problems with the ESS and the R script buffer.
> >
> >     > I would like to be able to use an autocomplete file name/path like in R
> >     > studio. I am sure that I am missing something in my .emacs file. Please
> >     > let me know what things would be helpful to post in order to diagnose my
> >     > problem.
> >
> > Completion (not just on file names) is "of course" a very very
> > old topic in emacs and hence also ESS.
> >
> > I'm interested to hear what others say... notably those who know
> > modern (>= 24.x or even >= 25.x) emacs well
> 
> I don't know modern emacs well, but I'd like to think I know how to
> use it pretty well.
> 
> ESS uses company to complete if available. On my system it works
> pretty well for completing file names, though the string must start
> with '.', '~', or '/'. That is, if I have a directory named 'data' in
> my working directory, 'dat will not complete but './da' will.
> 
> So, as far as I know you just need to install (and load? or does ESS
> do that for you?) the company package.
> 
> Best,
> Ista
> 
> >
> > The filename vs / and object name (of R objects in this case)
> > completion becomes relevant here and ideally ESS would know
> > which kind of completion is desired here.
> >
> > In the very remote past I had decided to distinguish between
> > filename completion and object name completion --- which is
> > nicely built into ESS and typically activated just by [Tab].
> >
> > For this reason, I've been using (in my ~/.emacs or rather
> > 'default.el' equivalent) for many years
> >
> >   ;;=== Define C-c-Tab (Alt-Tab = Meta-Tab is *taken* by "GUI")
> >   ;;=== for File Name Completion ===
> >   (autoload 'comint-dynamic-complete          "comint" nil t)
> >   (autoload 'comint-dynamic-complete-filename "comint" nil t)
> >   (define-key global-map [?\C-c tab] 'comint-dynamic-complete-filename)
> >   (if xemacs-p
> >       (progn
> >         ;; The following WORKS in xemacs, but gives an ERROR when default.el
> >         ;; is only LOADED in GNU emacs (20.2):
> >         ;; BUG (define-key global-map "\C-\M-\t" 'comint-dynamic-complete)
> >         )
> >     ;; else
> >     (define-key global-map [C-M-tab] 'comint-dynamic-complete)
> >     )
> >
> >
> >
> > BTW: I have no idea what Rstudio is doing (and how they do it).
> > As "they" learnt so much from ESS initially (which was
> > acknowledged orally at the time), maybe  we could learn from
> > Rstudio on this issue now...
> >
> > or see how other interpreted languagues such as emacs lisp or
> > bash or ??  deal with this.
> >
> >
> >
> >     > I appreciate the help.
> >
> > Maybe try the above and then use    C-c [Tab]
> > which is stored in my fingers in the mean time..
> >
> > Martin
> >
> >     > kindest regards,
> >     > Stephen
> >
> > ______________________________________________
> > ESS-help using r-project.org mailing list
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/ess-help