Emacs + ESS + AutoComplete

Emacs

• First written in 1976 by Richard Stallman.
• First software of the GNU project.
• Before mice, Windows or Macintosh computers.

Emacs Speaks Statistics

• Late 90s
• Merge of S-mode, SAS-mode and Strata-mode

AutoComplete

• First release around 2009.

• Multiplatform powerful text editor.
• Free and Open Source.
• Modes for different programmation languages and file types
  • e.g. R, Latex, Markdown, Perl.
  • Indentation, text highlight, functions.
• Customizable.
• Keyboard control or GUI.

• Linux : apt-get install emacs24
• OSX/Windows : package from Vincent Goulet

Configuration file

One file to customize Emacs: ~/.emacs.

;; Disable startup screen
(setq inhibit-splash-screen t)
;; Load path definition
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/lisp/")
;; Font
(set-default-font "Consolas 14")

Autocomplete from words in buffers : M-/

Forward/reverse search : C-s, C-r

Replace : M-%

Split/merge buffers : C-x 1, C-x 2, C-x 3

Switch/change buffers : C-x b and C-x o

Undo : C-_

ESS installation

• Linux : apt-get install ess
• OSX/Windows : included in Vincent Goulet package.

Adding simple packages

1. Download a .el file.
2. Put .el file in load path (e.g. ~/.emacs.d)
3. Add (require 'the-el-file.el) to ~/.emacs file.

C-c C-n to eval a line.

C-c C-p to eval a paragraph.

C-c C-r to eval a region.

C-c C-f to eval a function.

Other features

C-c C-d C-e to get information about R object (additional C-e for extra information)

C-c C-v to open a function's manual.

M-; to comment/uncomment a region.

imenu imenu-anywhere.el

Jump to function definition : M-o

Smart underscores

ess-smart-underscore.el

When pressing _, insert _ or <- depending on context.

Installation

1. Download and uncompress auto-complete-1.5.0.tar.gz.
2. In Emacs do: M-x load-file RET.
3. Enter path to install file : auto-complete-1.5.0/etc/install.el.
4. Update .emacs with

(require 'auto-complete-config)
(ac-config-default)

• Words in the buffer
• Object defined in R.
• Functions in R.
• Arguments of the functions.
• File paths.

(setq ac-auto-start nil)
(define-key ac-mode-map (kbd "M-TAB") 'auto-complete)
(define-key ac-completing-map [return] nil)
(setq ac-quick-help-delay 0.1)

Rstudio

Complete IDE for R development. It has most of ESS and AutoComplete features/

Vim

I don't know enough so no comment.

• Emacs is powerful.

• Emacs is configurable. Extensions too.

• It has extensive features for R development.

• More than R. Just one editor to know.