Tinn-R

Adaptation of Tinn as an editor for R scripts

Tinn (http://tinn.solarvoid.com) is a simple text editor developed with Borland Delphi. It is free (distributed under GPL, GNU Public License) and it is available for the Windows operating system.

Tinn-R (http://www.sciviews.org/Tinn-R) started as an adaptation of Tinn to make it more suitable as R script editor. This adaptation is made by a team composed by José Cláudio Faria/UESC/Brazil, Philippe Grosjean/UMH/Belgium, Marco de Groot/Mattic Software/The Netherlands and collaborators. So far the adaptation was tested on Windows 98, 2000 and XP.

New resources, not available in the Tinn project, have been added. So, Tinn-R becames progressively a distinct project.

Main characteristics (Tinn-R)

1. Syntax highlighting of R code.

2. Specific menu and toolbar to interact with R.

3. Allows working with the following R front ends:

- Rgui,

- R Console (Rgui in SDI mode),

- SciViews R Console (provided by SciViews-R, see http://www.SciViews.org/SciViews-R).

4. Allows also to work with S-PLUS.

Tips for using Tinn-R

1. Indicate in 'Options/Main/Application' if the specific R menu and toolbar should be visible and how to display call-tips (tooltips that remind you the syntax of R functions while you write R code):

2. The specific R menu and toolbar are now visible in Tinn-R:

3. If you like, you can customize the color scheme for the syntax highlighter:

4. Don’t use any accents or symbols (@, #, $, %, ^, &) in path or in files names of your R scripts! This can cause unexpected behavior of the program.

5. Take a couple of seconds to explore the various entries in the R specific menu.

5.1. Send to R: these are various functions to send part or whole of the current R script to R for evaluation. You can source the whole file, send a selection, or all the code of the current document. You can also send the whole current line, or from the current line to end of page. You can even send part of a line: from cursor to end or to beginning of line.

5.2. Controlling R: those are convenient shortcuts to perform several R commands directly from within Tinn-R. You can inspect the content of the selected variable in your code, either print its content, or list its names. You can list all objects in memory in the user workspace, or remove them all. You can clean up your R environment: either by clearing the console, by closing all graphic devices, or by clearing all (that is, you remove all variables, you clear the console and you close all graphic devices at once to start with a totally clean R environments – use this function with caution!).

6. The R specific toolbar can be docked where you want in the main window: on top, bottom, or on the left or right side, opposite to the tools panel (the panel with 'Computer' and 'Project' tabs). You can also “float” that toolbar on top of the main window, if you prefer.

7. Files with *.r, *.R, *.q and *.Q extensions are automatically recognized as R/S scripts. R syntax highlighting and R specific tools are activated for such files.

8. Tinn-R provides a convenient “parameters completion proposal” for R functions (call-tips):

9. You can send code line by line to R. To do so, it is recommended to place the windows for the two applications (both Rgui/R Console and Tinn-R) in a convenient way and to activate the 'Options/On top' in Tinn-R, so that it always float on top of R. Click on the fourth button in the R specific toolbar. The current line of code is submitted to R and the cursor moves to the beginning of next line. Continue to click on this button to progress line by line in the submission of your code to R.

9.1. Tinn-R with R Console (Rgui.exe in SDI mode):

9.2. Tinn-R with R Console (Rgui.exe in MDI, default mode):

9.3. Tinn-R with SciViews R Console:

9.4. Tinn-R with S-PLUS:

We are grateful to those who have tested this project, who have send suggestions and who have stimulated its development in its preliminary versions, especially Anderson Barbieri (coordinator of the development team of the 'Notes' editor: http://notes.codigolivre.org.br/), as well as all the people listed in the 'Help/About/Aknowledgments' box of Tinn-R.

Tinn-R team, 4 April 2005