[Qgis-user] Re: Plans to improve manage-R

[Nikos Alexandris]

Nikos:
> > * command syntax support/highlighting

Carson:   
> yes, eventually...


> > * command auto-complete function   
> definitely... soon


> > * customisable appearance
   
> I have started to address this (you can change the background and text 
> colours by adjusting the [theme] variables in the plugins .ini file (see 
> manageR help). Hopefully I'll add some gui options to the manageR 
> dialog... the only issue is that according to the QGIS gui guidelines, 
> only the main application is supposed to have a menu bar, so I will 
> likely have to find alternative ways of doing this...

> Hopefully that's what you were hoping to hear.

Yeyyyy, that's GREAT news Carson :D


>  Please let me know if you 
> have any further suggestions, or would like to contribute at all.

I am not really a GUI-friend but certain tasks need a simple, clean and
functional GUI (e.g. theme changer - would be nice to have). Anyhow, in
the case of manage-R I think it is (currently) enough to have a more
"functional" CLI (i.e. the features that, as you wrote, are comming -
can't wait :-).

If my head generates more ideas I'll post them. For example a quick
idea:

Let's say that by hitting Ctrl+K (or any other key) you get on the top
10 lines a "permanent" text-body which won't scroll-away as you run your
code, scroll up-N-down, etc. There you can put... well, whatever might
be needed from a user: usage shortcuts, etc.

Kindest regards, Nikos
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Just for the records:

I use a lot the JGR [1] to work with R. I like the separation of the
Console (command line interface) and the Response panel (aka output) as
well as the extra "Editor" window. You can play with multiple
scripts/code, edit and save your code, run only selected code from the
"Editor" window (though run one line at a time is missing) and more.

But somehow, this Java-App makes my machine like a "Rocket about to
launch"! In addition, the missing "direct-communication" with QGIS
(which manage-R offers) is not attractive for QGIS users.
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[1] http://jgr.markushelbig.org/JGR.html