R help - Nov 2008 - different .Rprofile files for different projects

Dear list,

First off, let me offer my apologies, I know this is a very basic question. 
After amassing a large number of objects (from multiple projects) in one working
directory, I'd like to be able to start using different directories, just
for the sake of organization alone.  But I have no idea how to do this.  I am
using a mac, running R 2.5.

Searching the FAQ online I find:

12.1 How can I have a per session .Rprofile?
You can by writing a .Rprofile file in your favorite session directory...

So I think my specific question is how do I write a .Rprofile?  I know it should
be obvious, but is there a command to be called in the R console during a given
session, or do I write a stub file outside of R (in a session directory?), open
this using Preferences and then modify it in an R session?  If the latter, how
do I go about writing a stub and making R recognize it as a working directory,
and what is a session directory/how can I find where the default session
directory is located?

Again, my apologies for being naive, and thanks very much for any help--
Andy Rominger

On Thu, 2008-11-20 at 19:43 -0800, Andrew J. Rominger
wrote:
> Dear list,
> 
> First off, let me offer my apologies, I know this is a very basic
> question.  After amassing a large number of objects (from multiple
> projects) in one working directory, I'd like to be able to start using
> different directories, just for the sake of organization alone.  But I
> have no idea how to do this.  I am using a mac, running R 2.5.
I'm not very familiar with the MacOS X version of R, but students of
mine were using it recently and under the Misc menu there is an entry to
change the working directory, which provides a standard Mac directory
selection dialogue box IIRC.

Alternatively, start R as per usual and then change into the correct
directory using the setwd() function.

You should probably update your R - 2.5.0 is 18 months old now, 2.8.0 is
current.

G
> 
> Searching the FAQ online I find:
> 
> 12.1 How can I have a per session .Rprofile?
> You can by writing a .Rprofile file in your favorite session
> directory...
> 
> So I think my specific question is how do I write a .Rprofile?  I know
> it should be obvious, but is there a command to be called in the R
> console during a given session, or do I write a stub file outside of R
> (in a session directory?), open this using Preferences and then modify
> it in an R session?  If the latter, how do I go about writing a stub
> and making R recognize it as a working directory, and what is a
> session directory/how can I find where the default session directory
> is located?
> 
> Again, my apologies for being naive, and thanks very much for any
> help--
> Andy Rominger
> 
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