R help - Oct 2006 - rcompletion: TAB completion for the R command line

CRAN now has a package called rcompletion that attempts to provide TAB
completion for R using the GNU readline library, intended for R
sessions run from a command line. From the package help page:

Description:

    This package provides pseudo-intelligent TAB completion for a
    readline enabled instance of R when it is run from a terminal (or
    more specifically, an interface which uses readline to accept user
    input). It has no effect on the various GUI interfaces to R,
    including ESS and the standard Windows interface.

The package does not compile on a standard Windows box, and there is
no Windows binary available for it. For more usage details, install
and load the package, then type

package?rcompletion

at the R prompt. The manual is also available online at

http://cran.r-project.org/doc/packages/rcompletion.pdf


Notes:

To install and use the package successfully, you need:

(1) R compiled with readline, and run with readline enabled

(2) the rcompletion package compiled with readline

The rcompletion package comes with a configure script that tries to
detect readline on the system and aborts if it is unsuccessful in
doing so. There have been no reports so far of false positives (i.e.
detecting readline when it shouldn't). However, there are known cases
of false negatives, i.e. installation failing when it shouldn't. If
this happens to you, any information you can provide to help resolve
the problem would be appreciated.

If step (2) appears to be successful but (1) is not true (e.g. R is
run with --no-readline), nothing bad (but nothing good either) should
happen.

-Deepayan

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Hi,

I've tried to compile rcompletion and perhaps have detected the reason for 
failures, although I haven't succeeded yet.

Em Ter 31 Out 2006 02:10, Deepayan Sarkar escreveu:
> However, there are known cases
> of false negatives, i.e. installation failing when it shouldn't. If
> this happens to you, any information you can provide to help resolve
> the problem would be appreciated.
>From config.lo generated by rcompletion configure
-------------------8><--------------------
/usr/local/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.0.3/../../../libreadline.so: undefined 
reference to `tgetnum'
/usr/local/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.0.3/../../../libreadline.so: undefined 
reference to `tgoto'
/usr/local/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.0.3/../../../libreadline.so: undefined 
reference to `tgetflag'
/usr/local/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.0.3/../../../libreadline.so: undefined 
reference to `BC'
/usr/local/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.0.3/../../../libreadline.so: undefined 
reference to `tputs'
/usr/local/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.0.3/../../../libreadline.so: undefined 
reference to `PC'
/usr/local/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.0.3/../../../libreadline.so: undefined 
reference to `tgetent'
/usr/local/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.0.3/../../../libreadline.so: undefined 
reference to `UP'
/usr/local/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.0.3/../../../libreadline.so: undefined 
reference to `tgetstr'
-------------------8><--------------------

It seems configure can't figure where to find these functions.
>From readline5.0 configure script
-------------------8><--------------------
checking for tgetent... no
checking for tgetent in -ltermcap... no
checking for tgetent in -ltinfo... no
checking for tgetent in -lcurses... yes
checking which library has the termcap functions... using libcurses
-------------------8><--------------------

The unresolved function calls (and perhaps symbols of other types) may be 
located at libcurses. At least in my system they are.
>From termcap.h
-------------------8><--------------------
#undef  NCURSES_VERSION
#define NCURSES_VERSION "5.5"

#include <ncurses_dll.h>

#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C"
{
#endif /* __cplusplus */

#include <sys/types.h>

#undef  NCURSES_CONST 
#define NCURSES_CONST /*nothing*/ 

#undef  NCURSES_OSPEED 
#define NCURSES_OSPEED short 

extern NCURSES_EXPORT_VAR(char) PC;
extern NCURSES_EXPORT_VAR(char *) UP;
extern NCURSES_EXPORT_VAR(char *) BC;
extern NCURSES_EXPORT_VAR(NCURSES_OSPEED) ospeed; 

#if !defined(NCURSES_TERM_H_incl)
extern NCURSES_EXPORT(char *) tgetstr (NCURSES_CONST char *, char **);
extern NCURSES_EXPORT(char *) tgoto (const char *, int, int);
extern NCURSES_EXPORT(int) tgetent (char *, const char *);
extern NCURSES_EXPORT(int) tgetflag (NCURSES_CONST char *);
extern NCURSES_EXPORT(int) tgetnum (NCURSES_CONST char *);
extern NCURSES_EXPORT(int) tputs (const char *, int, int (*)(int));
#endif
-------------------8><--------------------

May be your configure needs some rewriting to include a check for the location 
of unknown symbols like readline's configure does.

Best wishes,

-- 


Alexandre Aguiar
Independent consultant for medical research
SPS Consultoria
Voice: +55-11-9320-2046
Fax: +55-11-5549-8760

Just a quick follow-up. Thanks to Simon Urbanek and hints from
Alexandre Aguiar, CRAN now has a version (0.0-10) of rcompletion that
should work on more systems. If it still doesn't work when you think
it should, please let me know.

-Deepayan

On 10/30/06, Deepayan Sarkar <deepayan.sarkar at gmail.com>
wrote:
> CRAN now has a package called rcompletion that attempts to provide TAB
> completion for R using the GNU readline library, intended for R
> sessions run from a command line. From the package help page:
> ...
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