How to run Python, R, Octave or Julia using BowPad? - r

I try using a very light-weighted editor BowPad to edit and run codes.
Take running R as an example, which has been added to Windows PATH Environment Variable D:\R\R-3.6.2\bin\x64
I try to take some following steps:
I built a test.r writing some testing line codes as 1+2; plot(1:10)
Menu --> Run --> Configure custom commands
Command Name: run R
Command Line: D:\R\R-3.6.2\bin\R.exe $(SEL_TEXT)
$(LINE) The line where the cursor is
$(POS) the position where the cursor is
$(TAB_PATH) the path to the file of the active tab
$(TAB_NAME) the file name without extension of the current tab
$(TAB_EXT) the file extension of the current tab
$(TAB_DIR) the directory of the file of the active tab
$(SEL_TEXT) the selected text or the word at the cursor position
$(SEL_TEXT_ESCAPED) like $(SEL_TEXT) but escaped, useful for urls
When I press to choose run R to run the code, something wrong happens!
It will open a Rterm(64-bit) window each time when I run R!
it shows RGUMENT '1+2' __ignored__ or ARGUMENT 'plot(1:10)' __ignored__
Did I missing something ? BTW, can we set some shortcuts keys for running Python, R, Octave or Julia?
Also, when I reach the homepage of BowPad for more information, little usage of this software can be found!

R.exe refers to Rterm. You can use Rgui.exe instead but that won't automatically process arguments. I think what you likely want is to send the selected text to a running R session rather than starting up a new R session each time.
To do that
download this file and optionally place it on your path https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ggrothendieck/batchfiles/master/clip2r.js
in the Bowpad Run | Configure window configure a Run R command as the following (or if clip2r.js is not on your path use the entire pathname). It should be just like this with no arguments.
clip2r.js
From the Windows cmd line if Rgui is running we see that tasklist | findstr Rgui finds Rgui as the R gui process and you can create additional js scripts by editing clip2r.js replacing Rgui in the js script with whatever is the appropriate word to locate python, julia, octave or other R front end assuming again that they are running.
Now to invoke it from within Bowpad:
ensure that your Rgui session is already running and
from within Bowpad select the code you want to run and copy it to the clipboard and then invoke Run R. For example, to run everything use ctrl A ctrl C ctrl R 0 assuming that Run R is in position 0 in the configure menu. Alternately use the mouse with the Ribbon.
Regarding the comment about difficulty finding help, it looks like Bowpad is based on Scintilla so the documentation for it and the related SciTE editor likely apply to Bowpad too. You can also check the Bowpad source code on github.

Related

Use VBA to send a command to RStudio's Console

I want to do these steps in a macro:
Open Rstudio if it's not open yet.
Activate Rstudio
Put a command into the Rstudio's console.
Hit enter, telling Rstudio to run the given command.
I can do (1) and I can theoretically do (3) with Sendkeys if I can do (2), but (2) isn't working.
These two lines are the basic idea but using notepad instead:
PID = Shell("C:\Windows\system32\notepad.exe", vbNormalFocus)
SendKeys "source('C:/Users/Athena/Documents/helloworld.r')", True
Here a step (2) isn't even necessary since VBA sends the string in sendkeys directly into notepad like how I want. But if I try the same code with RStudio, the string gets pasted into the VBA code instead (or into the excel book if I used a button to activate the macro).
So in my mind, I want to force VBA to put focus on RStudio, then sendkeys will work as intended, and then I can do (4) somehow, telling RStudio to run the code I sent it.

Running R via terminal in Windows and leaving R session open

Suppose that I have a R script called test.R, stored at C:\, with the following content:
x <- "Hello Stackoverflowers"
print(x)
To run it via terminal one could simply call:
Rscript C:\test.R
And as expected, the result will be:
However, what I wonder is whether there is a way to run test.R via Windows console but after that staying within the executed R session instead of closing and going back to the console cursor? That is, staying inside the R session instead of going back, in the image above, to C:\R\R-3.4.1\bin>.
For instance, when compiling Python code with python.exe I can easily accomplish a similar thing by passing the -i parameter to the python.execall.
How could I do that with R?
Add this to your .Rprofile:
STARTUP_FILE <- Sys.getenv("STARTUP_FILE")
if (file.exsts(STARTUP_FILE)) source(STARTUP_FILE)
and then set the indicated environment variable outside of R and then run R. e.g. from the Windows cmd line:
set STARTUP_FILE=C:\test.R
R
... R session ...
q()
Variations
There are many variations of this. For example, we could make a copy of the .Rprofile file in a specific directory such as ~/test, say, and add this code to that copy
source("~/test/test.R")
in which case R would only run test.R if R were started in that directory.

paste single line command in R console without executing

Since I have started using R I have noticed inconsistent behaviours when pasting a complete single command line in the R GUI console. Sometimes the command is executed, sometime is not. I tried to use the "paste commands only" but the command is still executed and the option does not seem to have any effect. I want to past a complete command and not execute it.
How do I control what happens when I paste a single line?
EDIT: i think the issue is that I am also copying from notepad the "enter" character, so that's what make the command run right away. Is there a way to avoid this?
If you do not copy a newline character at the end of the command, it will not be executed when you paste it. You will need to enter one manually.
Rather than copy/paste, you might want to use an editor where you can highlight the code you want to run and then send it to the R console via a button or shortcut key. The Windows R GUI has this feature, as does Rstudio.

Starting R and calling a script from a batch file

I have an R-based GUI that allows some non-technical users access to a stats model. As it stands, the users have to first load R and then type loadGui() at the command line.
While this isn't overly challenging, I don't like having to make non-technical people type anything at a command line. I had the idea of writing a .bat file (users are all running Windows, though multi-platform solutions also appreciated) that starts R GUI, then autoruns that command.
My first problem is opening RGui from the command line. While I can provide an explicit path, such as
"%ProgramW6432%\R\R-2.15.1\bin\i386\Rgui.exe"
it will need updating each time R is upgraded. It would be better to retrieve the location of RGui from the %path% environment variable, but I don't know an easy way to parse that.
The second, larger problem is how to call commands for R on startup from the command line. My first thought is that I could take a copy of ~/.Rprofile, append the extra command, and then replace the original copy of the file once R is loaded. This is awfully messy though, so I'd like an alternative.
Running R in batch mode isn't an option, firstly since I can't persuade GUIs to display themselves, and secondly because I would like the R console available, even if the users shouldn't need to use it.
If you want a toy GUI to test your ideas, try this:
loadGui <- function()
{
library(gWidgetstclck)
win <- gwindow("test")
rad <- gradio(letters[1:3], cont = win)
}
Problem 1: I simply do not ever install in the suggested default directory on Windows, but rather group R and a few related things in, say, c:/opt/ where I install R itself in, say,c:/opt/R-current so that the path c:/opt/R-current/bin will remain constant. On upgrade, I first renamed to R-previous and then install into a new R-current.
Problem 2: I think I solved that many moons ago with scripts. You can now use Rscript.exe to launch these, and there are tcltk examples for waiting for a prompt.
I have done similar a couple of times. In my cases the client was using windows so I just installed R on their computer and created a shortcut on their desktop to run R. Then I right click on the shortcut and choose properties to get the propertiest dialog. I then changed the "Start in" folder to the one where I wanted it to run from (which had the .Rdata file with the correct data and either a .First function in the .Rdata file or .Rprofile in the folder). There is also a "Run:" option that has a "Minimized" option to run the main R window minimized.
I had created the functions that I wanted to run (usually a specialized gui using tcltk) and any needed data and saved them in the .Rdata file and also either created .First or .Rprofile to run the comnand that showed the gui. The user double clicks on the icon on the desktop and up pops my GUI that they can work with while ignoring the other parts.
Take a look at the ProjectTemplate library. It does what you want to do. It loads used libraries from a batch file an run R files automatically after loading as well as a lot of other usefull stuff as well...
Using the answer from https://stackoverflow.com/a/27350487/41338 and a comment from Richie Cotton above I have arrived at the following solution to keeping a script alive until a window is closed by checking if the pointer to the window is valid.
For a RGtk2 window created and shown using:
library(RGtk2)
mainWindow <- gtkWindow("toplevel", show = TRUE)
Create a function which checks if the pointer to it exists:
isnull <- function(pointer){
a <- attributes(pointer)
attributes(pointer) <- NULL
out <- identical(pointer, new("externalptr"))
attributes(pointer) <- a
return(out)
}
and at the end of your script:
while(!isnull(mainWindow)) Sys.sleep(1)

R unix terminal pager

I'm using R on OS X 10.6 and I prefer the unix console to the R.app for my work. If I issue a help command eg ?print the help content opens through a pager (i tried most and less), which however then hides out the content if I exit it bringing me back to the R input line.
What I really want is that the pager output stays on the screen even after I exit it back to R (hitting q).
I get this desired behaviour on other Readline-based Cli like psql for example, but not on R. Any hints on how this gets configured would be greatly appreciated.
The console pager that R uses can be set with the options function. With less, the -X option suppresses the terminal clearing at exit. So, if the less binary is located in "/bin" (not sure where it's located in OS X), this should work:
> options(pager="/bin/less -X")
If you want this to be the default behavior every time you start R, you can place the above command in your ~/.Rprofile file, which is run automatically at startup.
Alternatively, you can set a export LESS=-XF in ~/.bashrc and this will have an effect across all programs that use less as a pager. The F option would further exit straight away if the content is less than a page, which I find quite useful.

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