The R Project SVN R

rw0641
======

There is a choice of interface for Rgui:

o  SDI, single document interface. This is like the previous version,
   with separate windows for the console, graphics and pager(s).

o  MDI, multiple document interface.  There the console, graphics and
   pagers are subwindows of one main `frame' window.

You can set your preference (and details of the MDI) in the Rconsole
file: this can also be overriden on the command line by --mdi or
--sdi.

If you use multiple files in the SDI pager, the (row) positions are
remembered and re-used.

For MDI pagers, the size is chosen by the system, and only multiple pagers
are supported.

When pagers are re-sized the strategy is now to keep the middle line
in the middle.

The option `setwidthonresize' in Rconsole automatically generates an
internal call to options("width") if you resize the console width.
This is the default, but we suggest you do not resize whilst R is
outputting.

The file HOME\.Renviron is now read. This can contain environment
variables in NAME=value form, one per line. This is useful for setting
R_VSIZE, R_NSIZE, RLIBS and R_PAPERSIZE, amongst others.

You can now paste in more to the console: the limit (which was 2048
chars) is now that of the clipboard.

The command make pkgcheck-pkgname will do the equivalent of `R CMD
check', that is run all the examples in the help pages for that package.


rw0640
======

R-0.64 uses platform-independent code for file handling. Files are
displayed under a pager in a separate window rather than in the
console. 

Environment variables can be set as NAME=value on the command line,
including in a short-cut.

Content of the pager and of the Rgui's console can be printed
using File | Print.

The help, latex and example files can be stored in zip files to save
space; this is used for the base package.

The menus are enabled/disabled and check-marked correctly under NT.
We hope to have solved the 'rw0633 font dimension problem'  shown
under some NT versions.

read.fwf works if you have Perl installed.

help(, offline=TRUE) will work if you have latex installed and
customize RHOME/bin/helpPRINT.bat

The sockets code is compiled in, but we have not tested it.

system() has new arguments `invisible' and `minimized'.


rw0633
======

The beginnings of a FAQ (RHOME/rw-faq).

Programs can be launched from all shells: the full path to the
executable is not needed.

Configurable fonts in the graphics devices by the file Rdevga.

Workspaces are saved in XDR format, and so can be shared with most
Unix implementations of R.

Printer and metafile graphics devices (?win.print and ?win.metafile).

Consistent handling of start directory for dialogs and the working
directory across versions of Windows.

An improved and enhanced system() function (?system and ?shell). 

Windows-specific help files where necessary.

Better support for ESS.

Better support for the installation of pre-compiled packages
(?link.html.help)


rw0632
======

The NT copy to the clipboard bug has been fixed.

Help files use latin1 encoding (but, to see the difference, 
you must use a latin1 capable font; for this reason, now, as packed, 
the R console uses "Courier New"; if you don't like it, edit etc/Rconsole). 


rw0631
======

There are two executables, Rgui.exe and Rterm.exe.

NEW FEATURES

Will run from NT command line.

No `tricks' are needed for animated graphics.

The windows are much more responsive.

R commands can be interrupted by Esc.

Rterm allows batch mode operation and can also be run in
inferior-R-mode under NTEmacs.
 
There is a history mechanism for graphics plots.

Graphics can be copied to the clipboard.

Commands history is saved between session (only by Rgui.exe).

Saved images and user profile are called .RData and .Rprofile as under Unix
(before they were RData and Rprofile).


rw0630
======

- Minor adjustment to reflect changes in R-0.63.0 (options, example,...)

- Fixed a couple of minor bugs in the graphics device. 

- More control keys (some Emacs like (crtl+a, crtl+e, crtl+k), and, on
popular demand, crtl+c and crtl-v for copy and paste); take a look at
the help/console menuitem.

- Added support for Cygwin B20 (target remains Mingw32,i.e, no Unix
emulation layer)

- Access of global variables in R.exe from a dll should work (all the
orrible name-mangling needed by `gnuwin32' - `var' in R.exe becames
`*__imp_var' in a dll - is done automatically).


rw0624
======

New features:

- The console can be configured (font, colours, dimensions).  No fancy
dialog (yet), but look to the rw0624/etc/Rconsole file.

- help.start() now is implemented. Of course, you need the html
documentation.

Bugs fixed (I hope):

- Alt+Gr problems on some European keyboards.

- Focus is 'always' given back to the console.

- Filters in the dialogs which ask a file-name.

- round(..) now works as documented.

- Some small modification to the graphic device (position of text and
clipping of lines was sometimes not exact). In addition, I changed the
font to helvetica (for better consistency with the X11 device).


rw0623
======

A. News (with respect to rw0613)
--------------------------------

(a) I rewrote the console using a portable toolkit (GraphApp, see
http://www.cs.usyd.edu.au/~loki/graphapp). Now, output is buffered
until some input is required. In addition, there are some command
history support. For a mini help on the new console, use the
help/Console menuitem.

(b) I also rewrote the graphics device using GraphApp. Apart for the
redraw (which seems faster) the GraphApp device is +/- equal to the
one that you find in RJune. With respect to rw0613 the major
improvements are: (i) it is a R0.62.x device,i.e., it supports
multiple instances, resizing, copy,...(look to the dev.xxx functions);
(ii) it supports plotting math expression; (iii) there is a new item
in the menu which let to save the contents of the active device as a
gif file; (ii) arbitrary line patterns in any width are supported.

(c) Now, edit makes use of an external editor (the default one is
notepad),i.e., it works as under Unix.

(d) date() now works. In addition, proc.time(), and so
system.time(..), works (but don't expect too much, you will get only
the elapsed time).

(e) IEEE math (Inf, Nan,..).

(f) I used the GNU regex library. Hence all the
code is GPL'ed.

B. The new menubar
------------------
The menu bar contains the following item:

File 

Source R Code -> ask for a filename and then send to the
interpreter a source(filename) command.

Load Image -> ask for a filename and then send to the
interpreter a load(filename) command.

Save Image -> ask for a filename and then send to the
interpreter a save.image(filename) command.

Edit 

Copy Paste Copy and Paste Select All

Misc 

Kill current computation

List objects -> send to the interpreter a ls() command

Remove all objects -> ask for confirmation and then send to
the interpreter a rm(list=ls()) command

Graphics save as Postscript -> ask for a filename and then send to the
interpreter a dev.print(...) command

save as gif -> ask for a filename (extension must be
.gif) and then save the current plot as gif

Help 

Console -> mini help on the console

R language -> ask for a topic and then send to the interpreter a
help(topic) command

Apropos -> ask for a topic and then send to the interpreter a
apropos(topic) command

About 

Observe that some of the menu items just send to the interpreter a
command. This means that these items are disabled when the interpreter
is waiting for the completion of a previous command,i..e, when you
have the ''continuation'' prompt. On the other end, under normal
editing (prompt='>'), since the current line is saved and then
restored you can, for example, type part of a command, ask for some
help, and then complete your command.

C. Printing
-----------
To avoid questions: printing is not directly supported (yet).

To print the content of the console you must:
a) select the text;
b) copy it to the clipboard;
c) paste it in some word processor or editor which can print.

To obtain a good copy of your graphs you can:
a) save it as postscript and then print on a ps printer (or play with
it using gostscript);
b) save it as a gif and then print it using one of the many programs
which support this format (image manipulation programs, word processors,
internet browsers,...).

If you give the focus to a graphic windows, you can also copy it to
the clipboard using the alt+print keys. But this is the standard
Windows command and you will get also the window's decoration.  So
this is useful only to get a "draft" copy of the graph.  [however, I
find quite effective to open a word processor in which to paste
command, console output and graphs. Indeed this is the way, I ask my
students to work (of course, they must also write comments!)].

[...]

H. Bugs (known) and misc. observations.
---------------------------------------
(a) As always, the English of this README.

(b) de() doesn't work anymore. If someone needs it, I can try to include
the old one (or try to write a portable version of it using GraphApp).

(c) edit(...) doesn't work properly under Win3.1/Win32s.

(d) system(...) is quite limited (popen under MsWindows is a
nightmare).

(d) To use this version under Win32s you need a recent version of
Win32s (I have only tested with the last one that can be found at
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com).

(e) Only the mouse can be used to select the text in the console.