sponsor Vim development Vim logo Vim Book Ad

R.vim : Send R code from a VIM buffer to R

 script karma  Rating 155/54, Downloaded by 5715  Comments, bugs, improvements  Vim wiki

created by
Johannes Ranke
 
script type
ftplugin
 
description
The plugin is not maintained any more. Please use the excellent vimscript #2628. It even lets you use the "r" key to send a visual selection to R (let vimrplugin_map_r=1) if you got used to this using my plugin. The following is only kept for archiving purposes.

Send R code from a VIM buffer to R on Unix type systems using funnel.pl from vimscript #221. Contains

README.R_with_vim
ftplugin/r.vim
ftplugin/rnoweb.vim
ftplugin/funnel.pl
syntax/rhelp.vim
syntax/rnoweb.vim
Makefile.rnoweb

Fernando Henrique Ferraz Pereira da Rosa is now a coauthor of this plugin (starting from version 0.03). He helped me fixing a bug and started the syntax file for mixed highlighting of Latex and R syntax (syntax/rnoweb.vim).

I set up a small project page for this plugin, featuring a screenshot:

http://www.uft.uni-bremen.de/chemie/ranke/?page=vim_R_linux

You can browse the subversion repository where these files are at home: http://kriemhild.uft.uni-bremen.de/viewcvs/?root=vim

Alternatives for Mac Os X include vimscript #1741 and vimscript #2104.

Under Windows, I am now using a quite simple solution, consisting of the installation of the rcom package for R which requires statconnDCOM from http://rcom.univie.ac.at and ActiveState Perl in the PATH (watch out if you use R tools, because GNU perl does not have the DCOM interface, so ActiveState perl needs to be first in the path).
My ftplugin/r.vim under Windows:

perl << EOF
sub rsourceclipboard
{
    use Win32::OLE;
    my $R = Win32::OLE->GetActiveObject('RCOMServerLib.StatConnector')
          || Win32::OLE->new('RCOMServerLib.StatConnector');
    $R->Evaluate("source('clipboard', echo=TRUE)");
    $R->Close;
}
EOF

vnoremap <buffer> r "*y:perl rsourceclipboard<CR>

This means that the visual selection is pasted to the clipboard and the clipboard content is sourced by R when the key "r" is pressed in visual mode.



 
install details
For working with vim and R it is convenient to open a fresh xterm on a
fresh virtual desktop, covering the left half of the screen, and start vim,
check if the filetype is set correctly (:set ft), set it if necessary (e.g.
with :set ft=r) and press <F2>. This will open a second xterm listening to an R
interpreter.  You can then send visually highlighted code from vim to R with
the vmap "r".

Caution: If there are adjacent tabs in the source code (can be made visible
with :set list, then they show up as ^I^I), then your R console will list
the contents of your working directory in the middle of interpreting your
code and most likely get confused. I don't recommend using tabs anyway (use
the vim option expandtab, as set in r.vim). A workaround for existing code
is to execute it with the R command source().

-----

As an alternative to this plugin on www.vim.org you can also install my Debian
package if you are using the Debian distribution:

$ su
$ echo "deb http://www.uft.uni-bremen.de/chemie/ranke/debs ./" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
$ apt-get update
$ apt-get install vim-r-plugin

Note that you have to activate addons like this plugin since vim version
7.1-022+1, July 2007. For system-wide activation, use

    $ vim-addons -w install r-plugin

(details in README.Debian). You can then ignore the rest of this file.

-----

Making this plugin work requires the installation of the perl script,
ftplugin/funnel.pl. It just has to be in your $PATH and executable, so if you
are the only one working with the plugin on your machine, e.g.

mv ftplugin/funnel.pl ~/bin
chmod +x ~/bin/funnel.pl

(be sure ~/bin is in your $PATH variable) or if you have superuser privileges
you can put funnel.pl it into /usr/local/bin.

funnel.pl requires two perl libraries:

IO::Pty and Term::ReadLine

If you add the lines

au BufNewFile,BufRead *.R     setf r
au BufNewFile,BufRead *.R     set syntax=r

to your ~.vim/filetype.vim file (or create one with only these lines) then the
vimscript r.vim will be activated upon opening any file with a filename
matching *.R. The whole set of commands available at this point is elucidated
in ftplugin/r.vim.

I am also including my syntax files for R help files and R noweb files (Sweave files)
as well as a Makefile for processing R noweb files from within vim with :make. The
syntax files are part of vim starting from version 7.

I have one report of the funnel.pl not working on Mac OS X with the default perl on this
OS. If anybody gets this to work, please drop me a line.
 

rate this script Life Changing Helpful Unfulfilling 
script versions (upload new version)

Click on the package to download.

package script version date Vim version user release notes
R_with_vim_0.5-80.tar.gz 0.5-80 2007-11-21 6.0 Johannes Ranke - Cleaned up ftplugin/*.vim files
- Added shiftwidth=2 and expandtab to ftplugin/rnoweb.vim
- Added documentation on using vim-addon-manager to activate the plugin under Debian based distributions
R_with_vim_0.5-62.tar.gz 0.5-62 2006-05-24 6.0 Johannes Ranke - Update of R help file syntax for new items in R 2.3.0
- Fixed tabbing in ftplugin/r.vim to suit emacs edited scripts.
- Added a note about the problem with adjacent tabs being pasted to the R console (see README.R_with_vim)
- Small fixes
R_with_vim_0.5-54.tar.gz 0.5-54 2006-04-18 6.0 Johannes Ranke - Up-to-date version of the R help and R noweb syntax files. Both of them are now part of vim 7.
- Added ftplugin/rnoweb.vim and Makefile.rnoweb for R noweb files.
R_with_vim_0.5-38.tar.gz 0.5-38 2006-02-28 6.0 Johannes Ranke - switched to funnel.pl from VIlisp 2.3
- carefully reviewed and extended the R help file syntax highlighting
R_with_vim_0.03-36.tar.gz 0.03-33 2005-08-09 6.0 Johannes Ranke Fixed the problem with the xterm not closing. Installation is also easier now because the bash script R-managed is not needed any more.
R_with_vim_0.03-29.tar.gz 0.03-29 2005-08-05 6.0 Johannes Ranke Fernando Henrique Ferraz Pereira da Rosa inspired me to improve the
plugin. Also added mixed syntax highlighting for Sweave files according
to the tip of his.
R_with_vim_0.01-8.tar.gz 0.01-8 2004-07-30 6.0 Johannes Ranke Small improvement of README file
R_with_vim_0.01-6.tar.gz 0.01 2004-07-28 6.0 Johannes Ranke Initial upload
ip used for rating: 18.220.136.165

If you have questions or remarks about this site, visit the vimonline development pages. Please use this site responsibly.
Questions about Vim should go to the maillist. Help Bram help Uganda.
   
Vim at Github