README.md

In matloff/ksREPL: Command line shortcuts for R

ksREPL

Keyboard shortcuts for the R command line.

For example, in R, I work a lot with directories, moving often from one to another. This is the case for my classwork, where I have a different directory for each student, each exam, and so on. The same is true for my work on the R Journal editorial board.

So for instance I'd like to have a short alias for common R command-line operations, e.g. typing gtd instead of getwd(). By saving keystrokes, and especially by avoding having to hunt for the left and right parenthesis keys, I type faster and get can better focus on the operations I need to go through.

To make this abbreviation, I type

> ksrAbbrev('gtd','getwd()')

From then on, whenever I want to check which directory I'm in, I type

> gtd

Of course, one could do almost the same thing with

> gtd <- function() print(getwd())

and then type

> gtd()

whenever one wanted to query to current directory, but it's nice to avoid hunting for the '(' and ')' keys. Typing "gtd" is quite fast.

At any time, to view the abbrevations you have so far, type

> ksList

This one is included in the package; see below. Here's how to make new ones:

For instance, in debugging a program function f(x,s), say my test case is f(8,'abc'). It would be nice if I could just type, say, 'f8' as an abbrevation, again fewer keystrokes and no parentheses.

I set this up by typing

> f8 <- ksProto
> f8$f <- ksrAbbrev('f8','f(8,"abc")')

From then on, I simply type

> f8

The package has a few macros built in: including gtd (as above), upd (same as setwd('..').

gtd: "get directory," getwd() upd: "up directory," setwd('..') sstd: "save and set directory," save current directory in saveDir, then change (reads new directory from keyboard) bkd: "back directory," go back to saveDir

matloff/ksREPL documentation built on Nov. 4, 2019, 6:16 p.m.