R help - Dec 2003 - Session log file...

Hi all,

I tried to save a complete log of a R session we had in a seminar 
today... but I didn't succeed.

1) R | tee session.log
This saves both input and output, but I do get the cursor key escape 
sequences from editing (cursor-up to get last command etc) instead of 
the actual command line executed.

2) savehistory
Gets commands only, not the output

3) sink
Gets output, without the commands producing them

I'm sure I'm not the first one encountering this problem - there's
for
sure a solution, but I didn't manage to find it. If there is no such 
thing, would it make sense to add such a function to R?

Any help is greatly appreciated

Pascal

PS: I'm using R 1.8.1 from a linux terminal window

>>>>> "Pascal" == Pascal A Niklaus <Pascal.Niklaus
at unibas.ch>
>>>>>     on Wed, 17 Dec 2003 16:52:07 +0100 writes:
    Pascal> Hi all,
    Pascal> I tried to save a complete log of a R session we had in a seminar
    Pascal> today... but I didn't succeed.

    Pascal> 1) R | tee session.log
    Pascal> This saves both input and output, but I do get the cursor key
escape
    Pascal> sequences from editing (cursor-up to get last command etc)
instead of
    Pascal> the actual command line executed.

    Pascal> 2) savehistory
    Pascal> Gets commands only, not the output

    Pascal> 3) sink
    Pascal> Gets output, without the commands producing them

    Pascal> I'm sure I'm not the first one encountering this
    Pascal> problem - there's for sure a solution, but I didn't
    Pascal> manage to find it. If there is no such thing, would
    Pascal> it make sense to add such a function to R?

There has been a solution to this problem for a longer time than
R exists: 
  ESS (Emacs Speaks Statistitics, called "S-mode" in
       those days, and used for S and then S-plus).
  
  You work with an (or several) *R* buffer with the whole log
  that you (can edit even during use and) save at the end as,
  e.g.  sess.Rout
  {using *.Rout will make emacs/ESS use the ESS-transcript mode
   when opening that file later; in ESS-transcript mode, you can
   again send the (old) input lines to a running R process, by
   simple <Enter>.}

Probably for that reason, nobody of us (developers) has ever
felt enough need for an alternative to implement another one
(platform independently!).

Martin Maechler <maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch>
http://stat.ethz.ch/~maechler/
Seminar fuer Statistik, ETH-Zentrum  LEO C16	Leonhardstr. 27
ETH (Federal Inst. Technology)	8092 Zurich	SWITZERLAND
phone: x-41-1-632-3408		fax: ...-1228			<><