R help - Mar 2015 - .Rprofile vs. First (more of an opinion question)

Hello again

I am using R-3.1.2 on Windows 7.

I am the only one using this particular computer.

My question is probably more of an opinion question.

I want to set a "repos" with the options.  Also, I want to setwd and
load a
particular workspace.

Am I better off to put everything into .Rprofile, please?  Or .First?

Or put the options into .Rprofile and everything else into .First, please?

Thanks for any help,
Sincerely,
Erin


-- 
Erin Hodgess
Associate Professor
Department of Mathematical and Statistics
University of Houston - Downtown
mailto: erinm.hodgess at gmail.com

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

On 11/03/15 11:17, Erin Hodgess wrote:
> Hello again
>
> I am using R-3.1.2 on Windows 7.
>
> I am the only one using this particular computer.
>
> My question is probably more of an opinion question.
>
> I want to set a "repos" with the options.  Also, I want to setwd
and load a
> particular workspace.
>
> Am I better off to put everything into .Rprofile, please?  Or .First?
>
> Or put the options into .Rprofile and everything else into .First, please?
>
> Thanks for any help.
How do you create your .First() function and get it into your workspace?

I may be confused here, but I think that you would need to make sure 
that this is done in each workspace (in each working directory) that you 
use.  It may be the case that you use only a single working directory, 
but it is generally good practice to use a different working directory 
for each separate project that you engage in.

In contrast, putting your settings in .Rprofile causes them to be 
applied in any working directory in which you start R.

I also think that there's more danger of .RData getting lost or 
over-written --- it is getting used all the time, whereas .Rprofile just 
sits there and does its thing once it's been created --- than there is 
of .Rprofile getting lost or over-written.

Consequently my 2 bob's worth is:  Use .Rprofile.

Of course, this is a case of the blind leading the blind.  Caveat lector.

cheers,

Rolf


-- 
Rolf Turner
Technical Editor ANZJS
Department of Statistics
University of Auckland
Phone: +64-9-373-7599 ext. 88276
Home phone: +64-9-480-4619

I concur with Rolf.

.RData files (the ones with nothing before the period) are just traps for your
future self, with no documentation. I avoid them like the plague. I refer to
specifically-named Something.RData files in my .R/.Rnw/.Rmd files to cache
results of long computations, but they are optional in my workflow because I
always have R code that can regenerate them.

.Rprofile files offer consistency of behavior  regardless of which working
directory you use, and you can comment them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Newmiller                        The     .....       .....  Go Live...
DCN:<jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us>        Basics: ##.#.       ##.#.  Live
Go...
                                      Live:   OO#.. Dead: OO#..  Playing
Research Engineer (Solar/Batteries            O.O#.       #.O#.  with
/Software/Embedded Controllers)               .OO#.       .OO#.  rocks...1k
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.

On March 10, 2015 3:38:20 PM PDT, Rolf Turner <r.turner at auckland.ac.nz>
wrote:
>On 11/03/15 11:17, Erin Hodgess wrote:
>> Hello again
>>
>> I am using R-3.1.2 on Windows 7.
>>
>> I am the only one using this particular computer.
>>
>> My question is probably more of an opinion question.
>>
>> I want to set a "repos" with the options.  Also, I want to
setwd and
>load a
>> particular workspace.
>>
>> Am I better off to put everything into .Rprofile, please?  Or .First?
>>
>> Or put the options into .Rprofile and everything else into .First,
>please?
>>
>> Thanks for any help.
>
>How do you create your .First() function and get it into your
>workspace?
>
>I may be confused here, but I think that you would need to make sure 
>that this is done in each workspace (in each working directory) that
>you 
>use.  It may be the case that you use only a single working directory, 
>but it is generally good practice to use a different working directory 
>for each separate project that you engage in.
>
>In contrast, putting your settings in .Rprofile causes them to be 
>applied in any working directory in which you start R.
>
>I also think that there's more danger of .RData getting lost or 
>over-written --- it is getting used all the time, whereas .Rprofile
>just 
>sits there and does its thing once it's been created --- than there is 
>of .Rprofile getting lost or over-written.
>
>Consequently my 2 bob's worth is:  Use .Rprofile.
>
>Of course, this is a case of the blind leading the blind.  Caveat
>lector.
>
>cheers,
>
>Rolf