# ESS – Emacs Speaks Statistics

Changes and New Features in 17.11:

- The ESS initialisation process has been streamlined. You can now load the R and Stata modes independently from the rest of ESS. Just put `(require 'ess-r-mode)` or `(require 'ess-stata-mode)` in your init file. This is for experienced Emacs users as this requires setting up autoloads for `.R` files manually. We will keep maintaining `ess-site` for easy loading of all ESS features.
- Reloading and quitting the process is now more robust. If no process is attached, ESS now switches automatically to one (prompting you for selection if there are several running). Reloading and quitting will now work during a debug session or when R is prompting for input (for instance after a crash). Finally, the window configuration is saved and restored after reloading to prevent the buffer of the new process from capturing the cursor.
- ESS[R]: New command `ess-r-package-use-dir`. It sets the working directory of the current process to the current package directory.
- ESS[R] Lookup for references in inferior buffers has been improved. New variable `ess-r-package-source-roots` contains package sub-directories which are searched recursively during the file lookup point. Directories in `ess-tracebug-search-path` are now also searched recursively.
- ESS[R] Namespaced evaluation is now automatically enabled only in the `R/` directory. This way ESS will not attempt to update function definitions from a package if you are working from e.g. a test file.

Changes and New Features in 16.10:

- ESS[R]: Syntax highlighting is now more consistent. Backquoted names are not fontified as strings (since they really are identifiers). Furthermore they are now correctly recognised when they are function definitions or function calls.
- ESS[R]: Backquoted names and `%op%` operators are recognised as sexp. This is useful for code navigation, e.g. with `C-M-f` and `C-M-b`.
- ESS[R]: Integration of outline mode with roxygen examples fields. You can use outline mode’s code folding commands to fold the examples field. This is especially nice to use with well documented packages with long examples set. Set `ess-roxy-fold-examples` to non-nil to automatically fold the examples field when you open a buffer.
- ESS[R]: New experimental feature: syntax highlighting in roxygen examples fields. This is turned off by default. Set `ess-roxy-fontify-examples` to non-nil to try it out.
- ESS[R]: New package development command `ess-r-devtools-ask` bound to `C-c C-w C-a`. It asks with completion for any devtools command that takes `pkg` as argument.
- ESS[R]: New command `C-c C-e C-r` to reload the inferior process. Currently only implemented for R. The R method runs `inferior-ess-r-reload-hook` on reloading.
- ESS[R]: `ess-r-package-mode` is now activated in non-file buffers as well.

Bug fixes in 16.10:

- ESS[R]: Fix broken (un)flagging for debugging inside packages
- ESS[R]: Fixes (and improvements) in Package development
- ESS[R]: Completion no longer produces `...=` inside `list( )`.
- ESS[R]: Better debugging and tracing in packages.
- ESS[R]: Better detection of symbols at point.
- ESS[R]: No more spurious warnings on deletion of temporary files.
- ESS[julia]: help and completion work (better)
- ESS[julia]: available via `ess-remote`

Changes and New Features in 16.04:

- ESS[R]: `developer` functionality has been refactored. The new user interface consists of a single command `ess-r-set-evaluation-env` bound by default to `C-c C-t C-s`. Once an evaluation environment has been set with, all subsequent ESS evaluation will source the code into that environment. By default, for file within R packages the evaluation environment is set to the package environment. Set `ess-r-package-auto-set-evaluation-env` to `nil` to disable this.
- ESS[R]: New `ess-r-package-mode` This development mode provides features to make package development easier. Currently, most of the commands are based on the `devtools` packages and are accessible with `C-c C-w` prefix. See the documentation of `ess-r-package-mode` function for all available commands. With `C-u` prefix each command asks for extra arguments to the underlying devtools function. This mode is automatically enabled in all files within R packages and is indicated with `[pkg:NAME]` in the mode-line.
- ESS[R]: Help lookup has been improved. It is now possible to get help for namespaced objects such as pkg::foobar. Furthermore, ESS recognizes more reliably when you change `options('html_type')`.
- ESS[R]: New specialized breakpoints for debugging magrittr pipes
- ESS: ESS now implements a simple message passing interface to communicate between ESS and inferior process.

Bug fixes in 16.04:

- ESS[R]: Roxygen blocks with backtics are now correctly filled
- ESS[R]: Don’t skip breakpoints in magrittr’s `debug_pipe`
- ESS[R]: Error highlighting now understands ‘testthat‘ type errors
- ESS[Julia]: Added getwd and setwd generic commands

Changes and New Features in 15.09:

- ESS[R]: The indentation logic has been refactored. It should be faster, more consistent and more flexible. There are three types of indentation settings, those starting with `ess-offset-` give the actual offsets, those starting with `ess-indent-` are control (commonly Boolean) variables, and those starting with `ess-align-` are vertical alignment overrides which inhibit default offsets in specific situations. See `ess-style-alist` for detailed description of the new indentation system and provided default indentation styles.
- ESS[R]: Deprecation of old indentation settings. As a consequence of the indentation re-factoring `ess-brace-imaginary-offset`, `ess-expression-offset` and all delimiter-specific offsets are deprecated. The settings for indentation of continued statements have been replaced by `ess-offset-continuations`. It can be set to either `cascade` or `straight` (the default). `ess-arg-function-offset` has been replaced by `ess-indent-from-lhs` and has been generalised to assignments. This setting now works with both statement blocks and expressions and only takes effect for offsets set to `prev-call` and `open-delim` in order to produce a consistent indentation.
- ESS: A test framework has been set up.
- ESS[R]: A new RStudio style is provided to mimic as closely as possible R files indented via RStudio. To reproduce the setup of some of the RStudio users, the RStudio- style with `ess-offset-arguments` set to `prev-line` is also provided. In addition, the new RRR+ style is equivalent to RRR except it indents blocks in function calls relatively to the opening delimiter. This style does not try to save horizontal space and produces more indentation.
- ESS[R]: Roxygen fields will now be indented on paragraph refilling in order to make the documentation more readable. You can also refill commented lines in the `examples` field without squashing the surrounding code in the comments.
- ESS[R]: ESS can now format your code! This is controlled through the settings `ess-fill-calls` and `ess-fill-continuations`. When activated, `(fill-paragraph)` formats your calls and your formulas/continuations while making sure they don’t go past `fill-column`. Repeated refills cycle through different styles (see the docstrings for more details). By default, the refilled region blinks. Set `ess-blink-filling` to nil to prevent this.
- ESS[R]: Fix occasional missing error location fontification in inferior buffers.
- ESS[R]: ess-developer now correctly assigned the environment of new functions to the package namespace.
- ESS[Julia]: ?[topic] now works in the *julia* buffer. Note that support for editing Julia code now depends on `julia-mode.el` from the Julia project. If you install ESS from the official tarball/zip file, `julia-mode.el` is already included. Otherwise, if you install ESS by running `make`, then the latest version of `julia-mode.el` is downloaded (and so you need an active internet connection to install) during the installation process. Alternatively, if you run ESS without running `make`, then ensure that you have the `julia-mode.el`, which you can get easily from MELPA for example.
- iESS: For naming inferior processes, ESS can use `projectile`’s project root and it does so when `ess-gen-proc-buffer-name-function` is set to `ess-gen-proc-buffer-name:projectile-or-simple` as by default, or to another value beginning with `ess-gen-proc-buffer-name:projectile-*`.

Changes and New Features in 15.03-1:

- ESS[R]: An indentation bug has been fixed (github issue 163)
- ESS[R]: On windows, if ‘ess-prefer-higher-bit’ is non-nil (the default), then R-newest will try to run a 64 bit (rather than 32 bit) version of R.

Changes and New Features in 15.03:

- ESS[R]: Full native support for ‘company-mode‘.
- ESS[R]: More efficient caching algorithm for R completion.
- ESS: New offset variable ‘ess-close-paren-offset‘ to control the indentation of the closing parentheses.
- ESS[R]: Ask for CRAN mirror only once per emacs session.
- ESS[R]: Detect `library` and `require` calls for better completion caching.
- Buffer display is now customizable (`ess-show-buffer-action`).
- Use `y-or-n-p` instead of `yes-or-no-p` throughout.
- More support for ODS in ess-sas-graph-view.
- Makefiles are now both UNIX and GNU friendly.
- ESS[R]: Simplify directory lookup in `ess-developer` (#137).
- Make closed paren indentation consistent

Bug Fixes in 15.03:

- Fix open brace indentation bug (#27 in ess/R-ESS-bugs.R).
- Fix git version lookup
- Don’t check directory modtime in R dialect.
- Declare all ess macros for edebug.
- Add `ess-smart-comma` to eldoc message functions.
- Inform users when retrieving RDA aliases.
- Line ending in ’~’ is also a continuation line.
- Filing roxy paragraphs works as expected now.
- In `ess-developer-add-package`, remove incorrect ‘wait‘ argument from `ess-get-words-from-vector` call.
- Fix #96, #117, #120, #125, #134, #137.
- Fix ess-quit-r. Call base::q() even if it is masked.
- Fix ‘ess-show-buffer‘ to always display the buffer in another window.
- Makefile: Fix cd bug for directories with spaces in them
- `ess-kill-buffer-and-go` modified to not restart R

Changes / Selected Bug Fixes in 14.09:

- ESS[Julia]: Executable is changed to `julia`.
- ESS[Julia]: Completion and help system was adjusted to Julia v.0.3.0. Julia v.0.2.x is no more supported.
- ESS[R]: Running R with `gdb` debugger now works as expected
- iESS: Inferior ESS buffers are now derived from `comint-mode`
- ESS[R]: `ess-execute-screen-options` uses correct screen width in terminal sessions
- ESS: `ess-build-tags-for-directory` works when no TAGS file name was provided
- ESS: `ess-offset-statement-continued` is now respected everywhere except inside of the `if` test condition.
- ESS: New variable `ess-offset-statement-first-continued` for indentation of the first line in multiline statements.
- ESSR: Starting `,` in multiline statements indentation is now ignored to achieve a more pleasant alignment.
- ESSR: Improved behavior of `RET` in roxygen blocks.
- ESS[R]: command cleaning with `C-u C-u C-y` was broken with lines containing " + "
- ESS[R]: fixed "empty watch window bug"
- ESS[R]: don’t ask for help location on ac-quick-help (request of github #81)
- ESS[R]: "importClassesFrom" and "importMethodsFrom" were added to the list of two-parameter roxygen commands
- ESS[R]: fix vignetes display and hyperlinks (were broken in 13.09-1)
- ESS[Julia]: recognize function names ending with !
- ESS[Julia]: fix indentation of "for" comprehension syntax within brackets.

Changes / Selected Bug Fixes in 13.09-1:

- ess-remote and TRAMP: R support code is now downloaded in binary form instead of being injected from local machine. The R code is stored in `~/.config/ESSR/` directory on the remote machine
- TRAMP: PAGER environment variable is now correctly set to `inferior-ess-pager`
- retrieval of help topics on remote machines is fixed
- org-babel: source references of R code executed from org files correctly point to source references in original org files (version 8.2.1 or higher of org-mode is required for this feature)
- `ess-execute` is now bound to `C-c C-e C-e` in `ess-extra-map`.
- completion works again in `ess-execute`
- ESS[R]: `head` and `tail` methods were replaced by `htsummary` in `ess-R-describe-object-at-point-commands`
- ESS[roxygen]: evaluation commands now work in roxygen blocks. Leading comments are automatically removed before the evaluation
- ESS[transcript]: ’Clean Region’ now works with multiline statements; `ess-transcript-clean-region` etc. correctly treat multiline statements, i.e., no longer forgets the lines typically preceded by ’+’
- ESS[SAS]: Three features/fixes with special thanks to Matthew Fidler https://github.com/emacs-ess/ESS/pulls/mlf176f2. Turn on SAS log mode when appropriate. Indent comments and CARDS statement more appropriately.
- ESS[SAS]: `ess-sas-edit-keys-toggle` default returns to `nil`
- ESS[R]: support for `prettify-symbols-mode`: contribution from Rudiger Sonderfeld https://github.com/emacs-ess/ESS/pull/65
- ESS[SWV]: knitr now evaluates in the current frame
- ESS[developer]: ess-developer doesn’t kill open DESCRIPTION files anymore
- ESS[roxygen]: `ess-roxy-preview-HTML` is now on `C-c C-o C-w` and `ess-roxy-preview-text` is now on `C-c C-o C-t`
- ESS: installation with `make install` was simplified and should work out of the box on most *nix systems
- ESS installation instructions simplified
- fixed font-lock bug introduced in 13.09 that was causing very slow process output

Changes/New Features in 13.09:

- font-lock in process buffers doesn’t "spill" over prompts. Missing closing string delimiters should not cause wrong fontification of the following command input.
- ESS[julia]: full features M-TAB completion and auto-complete support, which now works for modules, structures and data types.
- ESS[julia]: a much better eldoc showing arguments of methods and data type constructors
- ESS-developer:
  - - ESS-developer work-flow pattern has been streamlined: ESS-developer is now automatically activated on per-file basis if the file is part of a developed package `ess-developer-packages`. The old behavior (activation on per-process basis) is still available on `M-x ess-developer` in a process buffer.
  - - integration with `devtools` package. New command `ess-developer-load-package` calls `load_all` on the package containing current file. `ess-developer-add-package` now offers IDO menu completions with available loading methods, currently `library`, and `load_all`. Loading command can be customized with `ess-developer-load-on-add-commands`.
- `TAB` now indents region if region is active (a contribution of Matthew Fidler in pull #41)
- `M-x ess-version` now reports full loading path and recognizes git and ELPA versions.
- warning and error keyword are now highlighted with `font-lock-warning-face` as they should be, (for quite some time these keywords have been hijacked by compilation mode fontification).
- eldoc: Eldoc now recognizes multiple processes. If current process is busy, or current buffer is not associated with a process, eldoc picks its completions from the first available free process.
- org-babel: evaluation is now org-friendly
- help: new help buffers now try to reuse ess-help buffers. This behavior is controlled by `ess-help-reuse-window` custom variable.
- help: ?foo pops IDO menu on multiple help files (so far it worked only for `C-c C-v`)
- remote evaluation is considerably faster now on slow connections
- ESS[R] tracebug R source references regular expressions are (mostly) language agnostic.
- `ess-function-call-face` inherits from `font-lock-function-name-face` rather than `font-lock-builtin-face`.
- `ess-inject-source` now accepts `function-and-buffer` option.
- Documentation: The “New Features” section (and `NEWS`) now represent recent changes: within the last year or so. All changes can be found in the new news.html (or `NEWS` and `ONEWS`).
- ESS[R] `ess-rep-regexp` should no longer inf.loop (rarely!), and hence `M-x ess-fix-miscellaneous` should neither.

Changes/New Features in 13.05:

- ESS[gretl]: Support for `gretl` (both editing and sub-process interaction). A contribution of Ahmadou Dicko.
- ESS: process output display is 4-10 times faster due to new caching and only occasional emacs re-display (for the moment this functionality is available only when `ess-tracebug` is active).
- ESS: `C-c `` is now bound to `ess-show-traceback` and `C-c ~` is bound to `ess-show-call-stack`.
- ESS[R]: ESS stores function in ’ESSR’ environment to avoid kludging users’ global environment and accidental deletion.
- ESS[R]: new variable `ess-swv-processing-command` to control weaving and tangling.
- ESS[R]: `ess-default-style` has been changed (from `DEFAULT`) to `RRR`. Use something like `(setq ess-default-style 'DEFAULT)` or `(setq ess-indent-level 2)` in your `~/.emacs` equivalent before loading ESS, if you do not like this new “incompatible” default style.
- ESS[julia]: ESS stores its functions in ’ESS’ module.
- ESS[julia]: Eldoc is now supported in julia modes
- ESS[julia]: Adjusted error reference detection and interactive help to julia internal changes
- ESS[R]: `ess-use-tracebug`’s default has been changed to `t`. Set it to nil if you want to keep the previous behavior.
- ESS[tracebug]: Electric debug keys have been removed [breaking change] The functionality was replaced with `ess-debug-minor-mode` and `ess-debug-minor-mode-map`.
- ESS[tracebug]: `ess-tracebug-map` is an alias to `ess-dev-map` `C-c C-t`.
- ESS[tracebug]: `ess-bp-toggle-state` (`C-c C-t o`) can now be used during the debug session to toggle breakpoints on the fly (suggestion by Ross Boylan).
- ESS[tracebug]: `ess-debug-flag-for-debugging` and `ess-debug-unflag-for-debugging` work correctly from the debugging contexts. These commands also recognize non-exported functions for the packages listed in `ess-developer-packages` (`C-c C-t C-a`).
- ESS[R]: Eldoc (activated by `ess-use-eldoc`) has become more sophisticated, and hence also more intruding in the interface between the Statistics softare, e.g., R, and the user.

  Note that you can turn off ElDoc, by placing `(setq ess-use-eldoc nil)` in your `~/.emacs` file, prior to loading ESS,

- ESS[SAS]: long over-looked `SAS-mode-hook` appears!
- ESS[SAS]: `ess-sas-edit-keys-toggle` now defaults to `t` since `sas-indent-line` is still broken, i.e. `TAB` is now bound to `ess-sas-tab-to-tab-stop` by default

Changes/Bug Fixes in 12.09-2:

- ESS: new `ess-switch-to-end-of-proc-buffer` variable that controls whether `C-c C-z` switches to the end of process buffer. The default is `t`. You can use prefix argument to `C-c C-z` to toggle this variable.
- ESS: fix in `ess-eval-linewise` that was causing emacs to hang during R debugging with `ess-eval-visibly` equal to `t`.
- ESS: fix in `ess-eval-linewise` that was causing emacs to recenter the prompt in visible window
- ESS[tracebug]: A better handling of “Selection” prompts and debug related singlekey commands.
- ESS: fix a bug in `ess-switch-process` that was causing `*new*` selection to fail.
- ESS[R]: Solve missing `ess-local-process-name` bug in R-dired.
- ESS[SWV]: `ess-swv-PDF` doesn’t ask for a command to run if there is only one command in `ess-swv-pdflatex-commands`.
- ESS[SWV]: `ess-swv-weave` gained an universal argument to allow for an interactive choice between available weavers (sweave, knitr).
- ESS: `ess-eval-*-and-step` functions go to next empty line at eob, instead of staying at the last line.

Changes/New Features in 12.09-1:

- ESS Breaking Changes in Keys:
  - - New keymaps: `ess-doc-map` bound to `C-c C-d`; `ess-extra-map` bound to `C-c C-e`; `ess-dump-object-into-edit-buffer` was moved on `C-c C-e C-d`
  - - roxygen map was moved on `C-c C-o` and `ess-roxy-update-entry` now resides on `C-c C-o C-o`
  - - ess-handy-commands is not bound anymore
  - - `ess-dev-map` (including `ess-tracebug` and `ess-developer`) moved on `C-c C-t`
  - - `C-c C-y` is deprecated in favor of `C-c C-z C-z`
- ESS[R] new command `ess-describe-object-at-point` bound to `C-c C-d C-e` (repeat `C-e` or `e` to cycle). It was inspired by Erik Iverson’s `ess-R-object-tooltip`. Customize `ess-describe-at-point-method` to use tooltip instead of an electric buffer.
- ESS: New command `ess-build-tags-for-directory` bound to `C-c C-e C-t` for building dialect specific tag tables. After building tags use `M-.` to navigate to function and objects definitions. By default `C-c C-e C-t` builds tags based on imenu regular expressions and also include other common languages `.c, .o, .cpp` etc. But it relies on external `find` and `etags` commands. If `ess-build-tags-command` is defined (for `R`), the inferior process is asked to build tags instead.
- ESS: `ess-switch-process` offers `*new*` alternative to start a new process instead of switching to one of the currently running processes.
- ESS: Switching between processes (`C-c C-s`) uses buffer names instead of the internal process names. Use `M-x rename-buffer` command to conveniently rename your process buffers.
- ESS: Process buffers can be automatically named on process creation according to user specified scheme. Default schemes are *proc*, *proc:dir* and *proc:abbr-long-dir* where `proc` stands for the internal process name and `dir` stands for the directory where the process was started in. The default is *proc*. For customization see `ess-gen-proc-buffer-name-function`.
- ESS: `ess-eval-visibly-p` is deprecated in favor of `ess-eval-visibly`.
- ESS: New evaluation pattern `nowait`. In addition to old `nil` and `t` values, `ess-eval-visibly` accepts `nowait` for a visible evaluation with no waiting for the process. See `ess-eval-visibly` for details on evaluation patterns.
- ESS: New “Process” menu entry with process related commands and configuration
- iESS: Process buffer is now automatically shown on errors
- ESS: New `ess-switch-to-inferior-or-script-buffer` command bound to `C-c C-z` in both script and process buffers. If invoked form process buffer it switches to the most recent buffer of the same dialect. It is a single key command.
- ESSR-help: On multiple help pages with the same name, `C-c C-v` now asks for user resolution directly in emacs.
- ESS[R] ess-roxy: new variable `ess-roxy-re` for fontification of cases where the number of leading `#` differs from `ess-roxy-str`.
- ESS[R] Eldoc was considerably enhanced. It now finds hidden default S3 methods and displays non-default methods’ arguments after trailing ||.
- ESS[R]: New `ess-display-demos` command bound to `C-c C-d o` and `C-c C-d C-o`
- ESS: New `ess-help-web-search` command bound to `C-c C-d w` and `C-c C-d C-w` to facilitate interactive search of web resources. Implemented for `R`, `Stata` and `Julia`. See also `ess-help-web-search-command`.
- ESS: ess-pdf-viewer-pref accepts now command line arguments
- ESS[Rnw]: Add knitr support. Customize `ess-swv-processor` for the default processor.
- ESS[Rnw]: More thorough renaming of remaining `noweb-*` to `ess-noweb-*`.
- ESS[Rnw] new commands `ess-eval-chunk-and-step` and `ess-eval-chunk` bound to `M-n C-c` and `M-n C-M-x` to mirror standard ess commands in C-c map.
- ESS[R] Auto-completion: new variable `ess-ac-R-argument-suffix` to customize the insertion of trailing "=". Defaults to “ = “.
- ESS[Julia]: Added index, apropos and web-search to julia.
- ESS help: More evaluation commands were added to ess-help mode (`C-c C-c`, `C-M-x` etc)

Bug Fixes in 12.09-1:

- iESShelp: Multiple help pages with the same name are properly handled on `C-c C-v`
- iESSremote: Evaluation with ESS remote no longer freezes emacs.
- iESS: `comint-previous-prompt` `C-c C-p` no longer stops on secondary prompt “+”.
- iESS[R], iESS(Sqpe) [S] on Windows: The `options("editor")` is now initialized to `emacsclient` instead of the previous `gnuclient`. The user may need to add the line `(server-start)` to the emacs initialization file. `emacsclient` has been included with emacs since GNU Emacs 22.1.
- ESS[Rnw] Fixed “connection to R” bug (in 12.09 only).
- ESS[Rnw] Explicit `ess-swv-stangle` and `ess-swv-sweave` functions.
- ESS[Rnw] Fixed completion and smart underscore problems cause by unmatched “\”’
- ESS[R] is more careful with the `R` code injection. It now happens only once at the start of the session.
- ESS[R]: Fixed auto-scrolling the comint buffer on evaluation.
- ESS[Julia]: Solve several indentation and word navigation problems.
- ESS[Julia]: Help system works again.

Changes/New Features in 12.09:

- Due to XEmacs lacking some features that ESS requires, ESS support of XEmacs ends with ESS 12.04-4. This decision will be re-visited in the future as XEmacs continues to sync with GNU Emacs.
- ESS[R]: On Windows, there is now a new customizable variable (currently called `ess-directory-containing-R`) to tell ESS where to look for the `Rterm.exe` executables. The name of the variable and the values it can take are both in beta and subject to change. Prior to this variable, ESS searched only in the default installation directory. Setting this variable now tells ESS how to find `Rterm.exe` executables when they are installed somewhere else.
- ESS[julia]: new mode for editing julia code (`*.jl`). Start with `M-x julia`.

  Full interaction interface, imenu and basic error referencing are available.

- ESS[R] noweb: `noweb-mode` and `noweb-font-lock-mode` have been renamed to `ess-noweb-mode` and `ess-noweb-font-lock-mode` to avoid conflicts with the “real” `noweb-mode`.
- ESS[R] noweb: The long standing font-lock bug has been solved in `ess-noweb` interface.
- ESS: Basic evaluation keys are now bound to `ess-eval-region-*-` functions:
  - - `C-M-x` is bound to `ess-eval-region-or-function-or-paragraph`
  - - `C-c C-c` is bound to `ess-eval-region-or-function-or-paragraph-and-step`
  - - `C-RET` is bound to `ess-eval-region-or-line-and-step`

  Each of these functions first evaluates the region whenever the region is active.

- ESS: `C-M-a`/`C-M-e` now step to beginning/end of paragraph if no function has been detected.
- ESS: `ess-eval-*-and-step` family of functions are now smarter, and don’t step to end of buffer or end of chunk code (`@`) when at the end of the code.
- ESS: `ess-handy-commands` function is bound to `C-c h`
- ESS: ESS is now blinking the evaluated region. Set `ess-blink-region` to nil to deactivate; `ess-blink-delay` gives the duration of the blink. Evaluated region is “blinked” in `highlight` face.
- ESS[R-help] New key `a` for “apropos()” in help buffers. Also available through `C-c h`.
- ESS[R-help] All R commands of type foo?bar and foo??bar are recognized and redirected into appropriate *ESS-help* buffers.
- ESS[R]: New customization interface for font-lock.

  ESS font-lock operates with predefined keywords. Default keywords are listed in `ess-R-font-lock-keywords` and `inferior-R-font-lock-keywords`, which see. The user can easily customize those by adding new keywords. These variables can also be interactively accessed and saved through `ESS/Font-lock` submenu.

  Several new fontification keywords have been added. Most notably the keywords for highlighting of function calls, numbers and operators.

- ESS[R]: auto-complete is now activated by default whenever auto-complete package is detected. Set `ess-use-auto-complete` to nil to deactivate.
- ESS[R]: R AC sources are no longer auto-starting at 0 characters but at the default `ac-auto-start` characters.
- ESS no longer redefines default ac-sources, but only appends `ac-source-filename` to it.
- ESS: `ac-source-R` now concatenates “ = “ to function arguments.
- ESS: Menus for ESS and iESS have been reorganized and enriched with Tracebug and Developer submenus.
- ESS[R]: `ess-developer` and `ess-tracebug` commands are available by default in `ess-dev-map` which is bound to `C-c d` in ESS and iESS maps.
- ESS[R]: `eldoc` truncates long lines whenever `eldoc-echo-area-use-multiline-p` is non-nil (the default). Set this variable to t if you insist on multiline eldoc. See also `ess-eldoc-abbreviation-style`.
- ESS[R]: completion code pre-caches arguments of heavy generics such as `plot` and `print` to eliminated the undesirable delay on first request.
- iESS: Prompts in inferior buffers are now highlighted uniformly with `comint-highlight-prompt` face.
- ESS[R]: R process no longer wait for the completion of input in inferior buffer. Thus, long running commands like `Sys.sleep(5)` no longer stall emacs.
- ESS: [R, S, Stata, Julia] have specialized `ess-X-post-run-hook`s, which are run at the end of subprocess initialization.
- ESS[Stata]: All interactive evaluation commands work as expected. On-line comments are removed before the evaluation and multiline comments are skipped on `C-c C-c` and other interactive commands.
- ESS no longer auto-connects to a subprocess with a different dialect than the current buffer’s one.
- ESS: `ess-arg-function-offset-new-line` is now a list for all the ESS indentation styles, which results in the following indentation after an open “(”:

        a <- some.function(other.function(
           arg1,
           arg2)

- ESS[SAS]: Improved MS RTF support for GNU Emacs; try `ess-sas-rtf-portrait` and `ess-sas-rtf-landscape`.

Changes/Bug Fixes in 12.04-3:

- ESS: basic support for package.el compatibility
- ESS[R]: correct indentation of & and | continuation lines
- `M-x ess-version` shows the svn revision even after `make install`
- ESS[SAS]: improved XEmacs support
- iESS[R]: better finding of previous prompt
- ESS[Stata]: adjusted prompt for mata mode
- ESS[R]: resolved name clashes with cl.el
- ESS[R]: removed dependence on obsolete package assoc
- New `make` target `lisp`, to build the lisp-only part, i.e., not building the docs.

Changes/New Features in 12.04-1:

- iESS[Stata]: New interactive help invocation.
- iESS[Stata]: New custom variable `inferior-STA-start-file`.
- iESS[Stata]: `inferior-STA-program-name` is now “stata” and can be customized.
- ESS[Stata] New sections in stata help files Syntax(`s-S`), Remarks(`r`), Title(`t`).

Bug Fixes in 12.04-1:

- ESS[R]: Better `ess-tracebug` error handling.
- ESS[R]: Corrected `ess-eldoc` help string filtering and improved argument caching.
- ESS[R]: Indentation of non-block if/else/for/while lines fixed.
- `M-x ess-version` should work better.
- ESS: Filename completion now again works inside strings.
- iESS[Stata]: Fixed prompt detection issue.
- ESS[Rd]: R is autostarted also from here, when needed.

Changes/New Features in 12.04:

- ESS: Reverting new behavior of 12.03, `TAB` in `ess-mode` no longer completes by default. If you want smart `TAB` completion in R and S scripts, similarly to iESS behavior, set the variable `ess-tab-complete-in-script` to `t`. Also see `ess-first-tab-never-complete` for how to customize where first `TAB` is allowed to complete.
- ESS: completion is consistently bound to `M-TAB` (aka `M-C-i`) in both Emacs23 and Emacs24.
- ESS: The variable `ess-arg-function-offset-new-line` introduced in ESS(12.03) now accepts a list with the first element a number to indicate that the offset should be computed from the indent of the previous line. For example setting it to ’(2) results in:

        a <- some.function(
          arg1,
          arg2)

Changes/New Features in 12.03:

- ESS indentation: new offset variable `ess-arg-function-offset-new-line` controlling for the indentation of lines immediately following open ’(’. This is useful to shift backwards function arguments after a long function call expression:

        a <- some.function(
               arg1,
               arg2)

  instead of the old

        a <- some.function(
                           arg1,
                           arg2)

  If ’(’ is not followed by new line the behavior is unchanged:

        a <- some.function(arg1,
                           arg2)

  This variable should be set as part of indentation style lists, or in ess-mode hook.

- ESS[R]: `C-c .` sets (indentation) style.
- ESS: In ESS buffers `yank`(`C-y`) command accepts double argument `C-u C-u` to paste commands only. It deletes any lines not beginning with a prompt, and then removes the prompt from those lines that remain. Useful to paste code from emails, documentation, inferior ESS buffers or transcript files.
- Documentation: ESS user manual has been rearranged and completed with several new chapters and sections to reflect newly added features (“Completion”, “Developing with ESS”, “ESS tracebug”, “ESS developer”, “ESS ElDoc”, “IDO Completion” and “Evaluating Code”)
- RefCard: Reference card was updated to include new features.
- Eldoc: Eldoc was rewritten and is activated by default. See `ess-use-eldoc`, `ess-eldoc-show-on-symbol`, `ess-eldoc-abbreviation-style` variables for how to change the default behavior. Note: `skeleton-pair-insert-maybe` prohibits eldoc display, on `(` insertion.
- ESS[R]: Eldoc shows arguments of a generic function whenever found.
- ESS: `TAB` in `ess-mode` now indents and completes, if there is nothing to indent. Set `ess-first-tab-never-completes-p` to `t` to make `TAB` never complete on first invocation. Completion mechanism is similar to the completion in the `inferior-ess-mode` – a filename expansion is tried, if not found ESS completes the symbol by querying the process.
- ESS for emacs version 24 or higher: ESS is fully compatible with the emacs 24 completion scheme, i.e. all the completion is done by `completion-at-point`. Also in accordance with emacs conventions, ESS doesn’t bind `M-TAB` for emacs 24 or higher. `M-TAB` calls the default `complete-symbol`.
- ESS[R]: Out of the box integration with `Auto Completion` mode http://cx4a.org/software/auto-complete . Three AC sources `ac-source-R-args`, `ac-source-R-objects` and `ac-source-R` are provided. The last one combines the previous two and makes them play nicely together. Set `ess-use-auto-complete` to `t` to start using it. Refer to documentation string of `ac-use-auto-complete` for further information.
- ESS[R]: New unified and fast argument completion system, comprised of `ess-funname.start`, `ess-function-arguments`, `ess-get-object-at-point`. Eldoc and auto-completion integration are using this system.
- ESS: `ess-switch-to-end-of-ESS`(`C-c C-z`), and `ess-switch-to-ESS`(`C-c C-y`): Automatically start the process whenever needed.
- ESS[R]: `roxy` knows about previewing text version of the documentation. Bound to `C-c C-e t`.
- ESS[R]: Solved the “nil filename” bug in roxygen support.
- ESS[R]: `ess-tracebug` is now part of ESS:

  New Features:

  - - Source injection: Tracebug now can inject source references on the fly during code evaluation, i.e. you don’t have to source your file, but just evaluate your code in normal fashion. Variable `ess-tracebug-inject-source-p` controls this behavior - if t, always inject source reference, if `'function`, inject only for functions (this is the default), if `nil`, never inject.

    During the source injection the value of `ess-eval-visibly` is ignored.

  - - Org-mode support: Visual debugger is now aware of the temporary org source editing buffer (`C-c '`) and jumps through this buffers if still alive, or in original org buffer otherwise.
  - - New keys in watch mode: `?` and `d`
  - - Two new hooks: ess-tracebug-enter-hook and ess-tracebug-exit-hook
- ESS[R]: New package `ess-developer` to evaluate `R` code directly in the package environment and namespace. It can be toggled on and off with `C-c d t`. When `ess-developer` is on all ESS evaluation commands are redefined to evaluate code in appropriate environments. Add package names to the list of your development packages with `C-d a`, and remove with `C-d r`. Source the current file with `C-d s`.Evaluation function which depend on ``ess-eval-region'` ask for the package to source the code into, `ess-eval-function` and alternatives search for the function name in the development packages’ environment and namespace and insert the definition accordingly. See the documentation section “Developing with ESS/ESS developer” for more details.
- ESS[R] help system:

  New Features:

  - - `q` quits window instead of calling `ess-switch-to-end-of-ESS`. This is consistent with emacs behavior help and other special buffers (breaking change).
  - - `k` kills window without asking for the name (pointed by Sam Steingold)
  - - Help map inherits from `special-mode-map` as sugested by Sam Steingold.
  - - Package index: new function `ess-display-index` bound to `i` in help mode map.
  - - Package vignettes: new function `ess-display-vignettes` bound to `v` in help mode map.
  - - Display help in HTML browser: new function `ess-display-help-in-browser` bound to `w` in help mode map. It depends on `R`’s `browser` option.
  - - New custom variable `ess-help-pop-to-buffer`: if non-nil ESS help buffers are given focus on display. The default is `t` (breaking change).
  - - New menu entries for the above functions.
  - - Bogus help buffers are no longer generated by default, i.e. buffers of the form “No documentation for ’foo’ in specified packages and libraries: you could try ’??foo’ ”. `ess-help-kill-bogus-buffers` now defaults to `t`. Beware, there may be instances where the default is unsatisfactory such as debugging and/or during R development. Thanks to Ross Boylan for making the suggestion, Sam Steingold for reminding us of this variable and Martin Maechler for the warning.
- ESS now uses `IDO` completing read functionality for all the interactive requests. It uses ido completion mechanism whenever available, and falls back on classical completing-read otherwise. You can set `ess-use-ido` to nil if you don’t want the IDO completion. See the documentation string of `ess-use-ido` for more information about `IDO` and ESS configuration.
- ESS[S]: “`,`“ is bound to ess-smart-comma: If comma is invoked at the process marker of an ESS inferior buffer, request and execute a command from ``ess-handy-commands'` list. If `ess-R-smart-operators` is t ``ess-smart-comma` also inserts “ “ after comma.
- ESS[S], notably `R`: Variable ``ess-handy-commands'` stores an alist of useful commands which are called by `ess-smart-comma` in the inferior buffer.

  Currently containing:

  change-directory

    `ess-change-directory`

  help-index

    `ess-display-index`

  help-object

    `ess-display-help-on-object`

  vignettes

    `ess-display-vignettes`

  objects[ls]

    `ess-execute-objects`

  search

    `ess-execute-search`

  set-width

    `ess-execute-screen-options`

  install.packages

    `ess-install.packages`

  library

    `ess-library`

  setRepos

    `ess-setRepositories`

  sos

    `ess-sos`

  Handy commands: `ess-library`, `ess-install.packages`, etc - ask for item with completion and execute the correspond command. `ess-sos` is a interface to `findFn` function in package `sos`. If package `sos` is not found, ask user for interactive install.

- ESS: New dynamic mode line indicator: Process status is automatically reflected in all mode-lines of associated with the process buffers. Particularly useful for displaying debug status of `ess-tracebug` and developer status of `ess-developer` in all associated buffers.
- ESS: New `ess-completing-read` mechanism: ESS uses `ido` completions whenever possible. Variable `ess-use-ido` controls whether to use ido completion or not. Active by default.
- ESS now supports comint fields for output and input detection. This feature is not used by default, but might be useful in the future.
- ESS[S]: New custom variable `inferior-ess-S-prompt` to customize prompt detection regular expression in the inferior ESS buffers. You can customize this variable to enhance comint navigation (`comint-previous-prompt` and `comint-next-prompt`) the inferior buffers.
- ESS[R]: Internal `R` completion retrieval (`ess-R-complete-object-name`) was rewritten and is faster now.
- ESS is using process plist to store process specific variables, as opposed to buffer local variables as it was using before. The use of buffer local variables to store process variables is discouraged.
- ESS: new functions to manipulate process plists: `ess-process-get` and `ess-process-set`.
- ESS: Internal process waiting mechanism was completely rewritten. ESS no more relies on prompt regular expressions for the prompt detection. The only requirement on the primary process prompt is to end in `>` . This could be overwritten by setting `inferor-ess-primary-prompt`.
- ESS[S], notably `R`: Saved command history: ess-history-file now accepts `t` (default), `nil`, or a file name. By setting it to `nil` no command line history is saved anymore. ess-history-directory now allows to have the history all saved in one “central” file.
- ESS[R]: more Roxygen improvements.
- ESS[R]: `C-c .` to set (indentation) style.
- ESS[R]: Functions with non-standard names (for example ’aaa-bbb:cc’) are properly handled by font-lock and evaluation routines.
- ESS[R]:Several regexp bugs (described in etc/R-ESS-bugs.el) were fixed in `ess-get-words-from-vector` and `ess-command`.

Changes/New Features in 5.14:

- ESS[BUGS/JAGS]: Batch BUGS is back! For recent OpenBUGS versions, 3.0.8+, a batch BUGS script is once again available, but for Linux only. Therefore, since it seems that BUGS and JAGS must co-exist (rather than a transition from BUGS to JAGS), .bug files are now in ESS[BUGS] mode and .jag files are in ESS[JAGS] mode. ESS[BUGS] now works like ESS[JAGS] rather than the original mode ESS[BUGS] mode which was difficult to maintain. Although, ESS[BUGS] appears to work, there still may be some features missing as well as bugs.
- ESS[R]: New customizable variable `ess-swv-plug-into-AUCTeX-p` Commands to Sweave current file and LaTeX the result are now available to AUCTeX users, if this variable is set to `t`.
- ESS[S]: `C-c C-c` (`ess-eval-function-or-paragraph-and-step`) is now skipping over comments as the other paragraph functions do. It (and similar functions) should no longer wrongly find ‘`function()`’ beginnings inside comments or strings.
- ESS[SAS]: improved by better support for GNU Emacs

Changes/New Features in 5.13:

- ESS[R]: On Windows, for R 2.12.0 and later, the Rterm executables (in subdirectories i386 / x64) now are found as well as for earlier R versions.
- ESS[S+]: on Windows, both 32- and 64-bit versions of S+ (“S-PLUS”) are found now and made available on the menu.
- ESS[R]: When prompting for a starting directory, the R version is (always?) correct now.
- ESS[R]: on non-Windows platforms, the `use-dialog-box` variable is no longer temporarily changed (to `nil` for R-x.y.z version functions and to `t` for `R` itself), but rather the user customization is obeyed.
- ESS[R]: more Roxygen improvements.
- ‘Rd-preview-help’ now generates preview buffers with navigation facilities the same as regular help buffers.
- ESS: New functions and keys C-c [up] / [down] for evaluating the buffer “from beginning till here”.

Changes/New Features in 5.12:

- ESS[SAS] Font-locking: update of PROCs keywords (up to SAS 9.22); error/warnings.
- ESS[R]: Roxygen improvements: S4 classes; also optionally keep spaces when filling arguments
- ESS[Rd]: support new keywords: section-name \subsection plus a dozen “new” keywords; should match R 2.12.x now.
- `ess-display-help-on-object` (`C-c C-v`) now caches the list of topics, thus speeding up the improvement feature introduced in 5.9.

Changes/New Features in 5.11:

- Filename completion within buffers now adds only trailing characters to complete the filename, rather than expanding to an absolute file path. This filename completion is bound to the TAB key.
- `M-n P` in Sweave buffers now prompts for the command to run instead of using `pdflatex` unconditionally, offering completion from customizable collection `ess-swv-pdflatex-commands`, the first of which is taken as default and that defaults to `texi2pdf`.
- `M-RET` is now also bound in S language (R and S+) buffers to `ess-use-this-dir`. It sends `setwd(..)` to the S process to set the working directory to the one of the source file.

Changes/New Features in 5.10:

- `M-RET` in *S* buffers is now bound to `ess-dirs`. This function will set Emacs’s current directory to be the same as the *S* process. This is useful if you use `setwd()` within a *S* process.

Changes/New Features in 5.9:

- Toolbar: The toolbar now has an icon for starting Splus.
- Indentation: New documentation and code has been added to make it easier to change how ESS indents code. In particular, see `ess-default-style`, `ess-own-style-list` and the documention subsection “Changing indentation styles”.
- `ess-display-help-on-object` (`C-c C-v`) now offers completion candidates for help file aliases, in addition to object names.
- Font locking: is now turned on even without `window-system` is `nil`, whenever ess-font-lock-mode is non-nil, i.e., by default.
- ESS script editing: ess-eval-deactivate-mark default is now t, as suggested by Leo Alekseyev and subsequent “unanimous” ESS-help discussion.
- ESS[R]: Editing support for “#!” (Rscript / littler) editing, thanks to Jeffrey Arnold.
- ESS[R]: Now finds all R versions, both 64-bit and 32-bit, on some 64-bit Windows machines. Please report back to ess-core success or failure on your 64-bit Windows machine.
- ESS Manual now more visually pleasing; http://ess.r-project.org/Manual/ess.html
- ESS[R]: Roxygen on XEmacs no longer font locks for now (as it required missing features and hence broke ESS startup, there).
- ESS[R]: Roxygen has a sub-menu on the [ESS] menu.
- ESS[R]: Function `ess-rutils-htmldocs` in `ess-rutils.el` offers an alternative to `help.start()` for navigating R documentation, using the `browse-url` Emacs function.

Changes/New Features in 5.8:

- ESS[R]: New `ess-rutils.el` with utilities for listing, loading, installing, and updating packages, as well as object manipulation (listing, viewing, and deleting). It also provides an alternative to `RSiteSearch()` that uses the `browse-url` function, so results can be viewed in an Emacs web browser.
- ESS[R]: much more extensive Roxygen interface, via ess-roxy.el from Henning Redestig. Ess-roxy supports filling of roxygen fields, generation and updating roxygen templates, completion of roxygen tags, basic navigation (marking and moving between entries), folding using hs-minor-mode and preview of the Rd file.
- Emacs lisp files have got better names (partly, for now).

Changes/New Features in 5.7:

- ESS[R]: loading a source file (`C-c C-l`) now works in Windows, similarly to other platforms; (further; it had accidentally been broken in ESS 5.6 on all platforms)

Changes/New Features in 5.6:

- ESS[R]: help() calls have to differ from old default, with newer versions of R; currently via .help.ESS <- function(...) hack.

Changes/New Features in 5.4:

- ESS[SAS]: The long overdue change from `make-regexp` to `regexp-opt` for font-locking is complete. The new `regexp-opt` is now the default since it is better than the old code in many ways (and especially more maintainable). However, there are certainly some special cases missed (bug reports and patches welcome!). Setting `ess-sas-run-regexp-opt` to `nil` will result in the old code being used.
- ESS[BUGS] and ESS[JAGS]: typing `=` now results in `<-`.
- ESS[R] function arguments “show” `(ess-r-args-show)` now uses the new `(tooltip-show-at-point)` contributed by Erik Iverson.
- Toolbar icons now also work in (beta) Emacs 23.
- ESS[S]: New function `ess-change-directory` for setting both emacs’ current directory and the directory of an *R* or *S* buffer.
- ESS[S] when transient-mark-mode is true, the mark is now kept, rather than deactivated, thanks to a patch from David Reitter.

Changes/New Features in 5.3.11:

- ESS[SAS]: work around bug in Emacs 22.2 & 22.3 which fails to set case-fold fontification automatically.
- Rd mode: support new keyword ’Rdversion’
- ESS[R]: now again works with Emacs 21.x

Changes/New Features in 5.3.10:

- Fixed noweb-mode bug accidentally introduced into 5.3.9
- In noweb-mode, e.g., Rnw-mode, electric “<” also inserts closing “@". Further, the code chunk boundaries are better kept up-to-date, such that code[R] <-> text[LaTeX] minor mode switching should happen more reliably.
- In noweb-mode, fix a buglet in rare [Enter] or [Tab] behavior; further, by default disable the former ‘[[’ .. ‘]]’ code-protection-when-filling behavior which has been found to be buggy.

Changes/New Features in 5.3.9:

- ESS[SAS]: evince PDF viewer now supported as well; search order: evince, Xpdf, Adobe/Acrobat Reader
- ESS[R]: added support for Roxygen, potentially to be extended.
- ESS[S] (and R): inferior (`*R*`) and transcript modes no longer fontify language keywords (such as `for`, `in`, etc).
- iESS[Stata]: Customize the `ess-sta-delimiter-friendly` setting to `t` to convert embedded semi-colons to newlines for Stata processing.
- Sweave fix for embedded blanks in PDF reader and PDF files
- Several fixes for Major Mode Convention violations in `ess-mode` and `noweb-mode`.
- ESS[JAGS]: `M-x comment-region` now available!
- ESS[S] The `ess-swv-*` commands (and keybindings) are now in a submenu of the “Noweb” menu, when editing Sweave files.

Changes/New Features in 5.3.8:

- ESS[JAGS]: more separation from ESS[BUGS] (as much as is currently planned); now `C-c C-c` on an empty `.jmd` creates a template as it should; symbolic links are created for CODA output so BOA is happy: from `index.txt` to `.ind` and `chain#.txt` to `#.out`
- ESS[SAS]: buffer-local `ess-sas-submit-command` and `ess-sas-submit-command-options` now recognized by `ess-sas-submit-region`
- ESS[S]: When trying to evaluate code in an S language buffer and there is no associated process, now start R automatically instead of signalling an error. Also, restart R if there is an associated process which is not running. However, do not start R just via the “electric” `(` (`ess-r-args-auto-show`).
- ESS[S]: For (one-line) functions withOUT ’{ .. }’ bodys, the end of function is now correctly found more often. This notably improves `C-c C-c` (`ess-eval-function-or-paragraph-and-step`).
- ESS[JAGS]: cleanup/re-organization of elisp code; symbolic links for CODA output are now only created by the new JAGS `system` command in version 1.0.3; specify whether this command is available via `ess-jags-system`; if not present, then no links are created so that the `*shell*` buffer does not become unresponsive during the batch run

Changes/New Features in 5.3.7:

- ESS: `ess-default-style` now *is* customizable, i.e., changing its value in `~/.emacs` now does have the desired effect.
- ESS: `ess-font-lock-mode` is a new variable (default: t) which controls whether font-locking is enabled in ESS buffers.
- ESS[R]: for XEmacs on Windows; another tweak to find R versions
- ESS[SAS]: font-locking updated for ODS and SAS Bayesian Procedures; a more consistent handling of SAS options by `ess-sas-submit-command-options` which is buffer-local; portable snooze for MS Windows via customize-able `ess-sleep-for` (floats welcome); Xpdf now supported as a PDF viewer
- ESS[Rnw]: now also works with “emacs -nw” and Emacs 22.
- ESS[JAGS]: now requires JAGS 1.0 (see the new ESS for JAGS help section for more information): both need work; suggestions welcome
- ESS[R]: [TAB] completion now uses the R-internal completion mechanism (for R >= 2.5.0).
- ESS[R] ([S]): interpretation of “_” as assignment has been removed in `ess-continued-statement-p` for R and S.
- several internal code cleanups.
- ESS[R]: An experimental version of a new command `Rgui` on MS Windows to send lines directly from emacs to `Rgui` is available in file `lisp/essd-rgui.el`. Preliminary documentation is in file `doc/rgui-doc.txt`.

Changes/New Features in 5.3.6:

- ESS: for XEmacs, using “gnuclient” (without a “-q”) works for things like fix() after M-x gnuserv-start has been done.
- ESS[R]: M-x R-newest should now work in more situations on MS Windows, e.g., when R has been installed in a non-default "ProgramFiles" directory tree. In these cases, there’s no need to specify the name (and full path) of the R program anymore.
- ESS[R]: For XEmacs, startup (with new tooltip code) works again.

Changes/New Features in 5.3.5:

- ESS[R] a new defun is available, `M-x R-newest`, which will start the newest version of R that it can find on your system.
- ESS[R] add Sven Hartenstein’s “R function arguments tips” functionality, via new file `../lisp/essd-r-args.el`. Note that this includes an “electric "("” behavior inside `R-mode` which is active by default and can be customized via `ess-r-args-electric-paren`; i.e., use `(setq ess-r-args-electric-paren nil)` to turn it off. Further, `ess-r-args-show-as` allows to switch to the “tooltip” mode.
- ESS: functions `ess-get-pdf-viewer` and *-ps-viewer; built on new customizable variables `ess-pdf-viewer-pref` and `ess-ps-viewer-pref`; currently used in `ess-swv-PDF` and `*-PS`.
- ESS[R] Improved `ess-swv-PDF` to run pdf viewer only if pdflatex was ok
- ESS[R] Improved `ess-swv-weave` to start R automatically if none is running.
- ESS: Do no longer ask which ESS process to use if there is only one.

Changes/New Features in 5.3.4:

- ESS[R] now better work with options(error=recover); and the new default of CHM help files on windows.
- ESS[R] some more cleanup in the “sweave” functions
- miscellaneous fixes

Changes/New Features in 5.3.3:

- ESS[S] fix buglet (5.3.2 only) which left command prompt in “execute buffer” and hence help files.
- new customizable variable `ess-display-buffer-reuse-frames` set to true (which changes default behavior) such that execution or help *frames* are reused.

Changes/New Features in 5.3.2:

- Classic BUGS now supported by `(require 'essd-bugs)` with ESS[BUGS] and JAGS by `(require 'essd-jags)` with ESS[JAGS]. But, only one of them can be used at a time since they don’t play nice together. Also, `C-c C-c` is now bound to the function `ess-bugs-next-action` (`F12` has been retired). And finally, note that `essl-bug.el` is deprecated and the replacement is `essl-bugs.el`.
- ESS[R] Improved some of the “Sweave-make” functions (yet scarcely documented) in `ess-swv.el`.
- ESS[S] No longer mess with .Last.value (nor in other “languages”).

Changes/New Features in 5.3.1:

- See the docs for 2 ways to install ESS for XEmacs
  1. by uncommenting the XEmacs part of Section 1 of `Makeconf` and performing `make install`
  2. by unpacking either `ess-5.3.1.tgz` or `ess-5.3.1.zip` into `PREFIX/lib/xemacs/site-packages` on unix or `PREFIX\XEmacs\site-packages` on windows
- ESS[R]: fixed bugs so that Rterm.exe can be found by XEmacs
- ESS[S]: `ess-toggle-S-assign-key` is slightly changed; in particular, the default `ess-assign-key` is now `C-x =`.
- ESS[R]: `M-x R-site-search` is a new (slightly experimental) utility similar to R’s `RSiteSearch(..)` but with the advantage of using Emacs’ preferred browser, see `browse-url-browser-function`

Changes/New Features in 5.3.0:

- ESS[BUGS]: sanely re-format statistical output, `.bog`, from scientific notation to numbers rounded with 4 decimal places with `M-x ess-bugs-sci-round-to-4-dp`.
- The keys for navigating among section headings in help buffers worked, but only for one language per session; they should now work for multiple languages. (They were also broken on Windows machines.)
- ESS[S] long standing buglets in the internal logic for loading lisp code on Windows. Particularly fixed behavior in help mode with S-plus GUI.
- New variable, `ess-use-inferior-program-name-in-buffer-name`, which enables using the executable name instead of the dialect name for R. Feature request.
- ESS[S] `ess-execute-screen-options` now also works correctly when there is more than one window *side-by-side* in the same frame and runs in the correct buffer also when there is more than one S buffer.
- iESS[S] new functions `ess-eval-paragraph-and-step` and `ess-eval-function-or-paragraph-and-step` are bound to keys `C-c C-p` and `C-c C-c` respectively and to the menu in ESS-mode; also bound in the help mode (for evaluating examples).
- ESS[S] new function `ess-toggle-S-assign-key` allows to assign the “ <- ” insertion to an arbitrary key.

Changes/New Features in 5.2.12:

- ESS[SAS]: `M-;` fixed, but the XEmacs function `comment-dwim` may be broken, if so, use `M-x comment-region` and `M-x uncomment-region` instead; only valid PROCs are fontified which is very helpful finding syntax errors (currently supported: BASE, ETS, FSP, GRAPH, IML, INSIGHT and STAT); the “feature” where `F`-keys take you to an empty buffer when the requested destination is a file that does not exist has been fixed, now the request results in a no-op. Further, sas-mode now also works in simple terminals.
- Rterm/Cygwin combination works under Microsoft Windows.
- ESS[R]: internal calls use baseenv() instead of NULL and define ’baseenv’ where needed.
- New experimental support for installing ESS. See the file `lisp/ess-install.el`.

Changes/New Features in 5.2.11:

- ESS Info entry and `dir` handled more effectively for GNU Emacs users
- ESS[SAS]: temporary files created for batch submission of a region are now named based on the current file; see `ess-sas-file-root` for details; all `lag` and `dif` functions now fontified correctly
- iESS[SAS]: fixed a few nagging bugs, however, still does not appear to work at this time; please let us know if you have any ideas.
- ESS[S]: Support for running other versions of Splus has been added for unix. Two new variables, `ess-s-versions` and `ess-s-versions-list`, are used to tell ESS what other versions of Splus you would like to run.

Changes/New Features in 5.2.10:

- ESS[R]: ess-r-versions can no longer be customized (since the customization was not taking effect unless customizations were loaded before ESS). Its value has been changed so that it will also find R executables beginning “R-devel” and “R-patched”. If you wish to change this variable, it must be set in your `.emacs` before ESS is loaded.
- Installation with GNU Make enhanced: unix and unix-like operating systems will now be able to install ESS for all users in either a GNU Emacs site-lisp or an XEmacs package configuration by editing `lisp/ess-site.el` and `Makeconf` accordingly, then issuing `make install`
- ESS[S]: Filename completion (inside strings) now also works in XEmacs for R and S-plus.

Changes/New Features in 5.2.9:

- ESS[R] for Windows: the \ directory character bug with respect to ess-load-file has been eradicated.
- iESS[SAS]: `C-c C-r` and `C-c C-b` once again work as intended and documented.
- ESS[S]: M-x ess-fix-EQ-assign is a bit more agressive.
- ESS[S]: Imenu now also shows setAs(), etc.
- ESS[R]: R function pattern enhanced with underlying code such that `M-C-a` (`ess-beginning-of-function`) etc now work for many more cases, including S4 method definitions.
- iESS[R]: myOwnhelp(1) no longer wrongly triggers help(1).
- ESS[R]: Improved detection of bogus help buffers: valid help buffers containing with the string “no documentation”(e.g. contour) were being treated as bogus.
- ESS[R]: In R help buffers, if `options("help.try.all.packages" = TRUE)` then `?rlm` will list which packages rlm is defined in. This help buffer is not bogus, but instead is now relabelled “*help[R](rlm in packages)*”.
- ESS[STA]: add “//” as comment starting character to syntax-table.

Changes/New Features in 5.2.8:

- iESS: [Tab] completes file names “inside string” as in earlier (<= 5.2.3) ESS versions.

Changes/New Features in 5.2.7:

- If you use Custom to change the variable ess-toolbar-items, the new toolbar is used in all subsequent ESS buffers.
- ESS[SAS]: new feature: if ess-sas-log-max >0 and your .log grows to more than ess-sas-log-max bytes, just the first ess-sas-log-max bytes are refreshed; this is helpful when your .sas program generates lots of error messages and gets too big for emacs to display
- ESS[R/S]: `M-;` in R/S editing modes will now indent with either one or two hashes depending on context.
- ESS[R]: David Whiting’s Sweave extensions (to ’noweb’) are now available (from ess-swv.el loaded by default).

Changes/New Features in 5.2.6:

- Removed non-ASCII characters in a few files.
- ESS[R]: now works better when UTF-8 locale is active; in particular, you get correct directional quotes in R’s startup message for R-devel (unstable development version of R 2.1.0) when using environment variables LANGUAGE=en@quot LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
- ESS[SAS]: toggling of .log mode improved (`F10`); toggling of .lst mode now also available (`C-F10`); killing all buffers associated with .sas program no longer bound to `C-F10` since its a bit overzealous.
- S-Plus 7 for Windows is now recognized.
- ESS[S] (incl. R): in auto-fill mode, strings are not wrapped anymore.
- ESS[S] (incl. R): font-lock now correctly differs between R and S, e.g., for "_"; both now fontify warning(.) and S does terminate() additionally.
- Support for ‘bell’ aka ‘beep’ aka ‘ding’ aka ‘alarm’ in all inferior modes: When \a is output “to the the console” at the beginning of a line, the bell is rung.

Changes/New Features in 5.2.5:

- ESS[R]: `C-c C-q` or ‘`Quit S`’ from the menu now should work (again and less klunkily) and do not append ‘`-exited`’ to the buffer name. Further, the behavior of `(ess-cleanup)`, called from ess-quit, now depends on the new customizable variable `ess-S-quit-kill-buffers-p` which defaults to `nil`. Consequently, the question “Delete all buffers associated with ..?” will not be asked anymore by default.
- ESS[SAS] – ess-ebcdic-to-ascii-search-and-replace will now work with the `recode` application as well which is available on many platforms
- ESS[S] (incl. R): Name completion for slots of S4 objects now works!

Changes/New Features in 5.2.4:

- The documentation now includes an overview of how to use the emacs TAGS facility for S functions. (The distribution also used to contain a directory `etc/other/Tags` where a ~1990 version of `etags.c` was distributed; this is no longer relevant and so has been deleted.)
- ESS[SAS] – When you are working with EBCDIC files on an ASCII platform, .log NOTEs may display as gibberish since the EBCDIC characters are not converted to ASCII prior to their display. So, the function ess-ebcdic-to-ascii-search-and-replace is provided for convenience and is bound to `C-F11`. This function requires the `dd` command (only available on unix or unix-like platforms).
- ESS: Completion of object names is now always done dynamically rather than allowing the option of using a pre-computed database (by `ess-create-object-name-db`) since modern computers seem fast enough for dynamic completion. (We expect few users, if any, have been using the pre-computed database method.)
- ESS: object completion in iESS buffers running on Windows was very slow (for GNU Emacs, but not XEmacs) and has now been fixed. Further, it was more or less broken for all versions of S-plus 6.x, and has been fixed to work everywhere but with the Windows’ GUI of S-plus. The list of objects now shows unique names also when an object appears more than once in the search path.
- ESS[R]: Completion of object names now also includes those starting with “.”.

Changes/New Features in 5.2.3:

- ESS: When new inferior ESS processes are created, by default they will replace the current buffer (this restores behavior from pre 5.2.0). If you wish new ESS processes to start in another window of the current frame, set inferior-ess-same-window to nil.
- New variables inferior-Splus-args and inferior-R-args provide a way to pass command line arguments to starting S and R processes.

Changes/New Features in 5.2.2:

- bug-fixes for 5.2.1 (require ’executable), html docs, etc.
- ess-lisp-directory/../doc/info added to Info-directory-list if ess-info not found by info
- ESS[R]: If you have other versions of R on your exec-path, such as "R-1.8.1" with Unix or "rw1081" with Windows, ESS will find them and create appropriate functions, such as `M-x R-1.8.1` or `M-x rw1081`, for calling them. By default only Unix programs beginning "R-1" and "R-2" and Windows programs parallel to the version of R in your exec-path will be found, but see ess-r-versions and ess-rterm-versions for ways to find other versions of R.
- ESS[R]: Other versions of R, such as "R-1.8.1" on Unix and "rw1081" on Windows, are added to the "ESS / Start Process / Other" menu.
- ESS[S]: If you have other versions of S-Plus on your Windows computer, such as S-Plus 6.1 or S-Plus 4.5, ESS will find them and create appropriate functions, such as `M-x splus61`, for calling the console version (Sqpe) inside an emacs buffer. By default only programs installed in the default location will be found, but see ess-SHOME-versions for ways to find other versions of S-Plus.
- ESS[S]: Other versions of Sqpe on Windows, such as "splus61", are added to the "ESS / Start Process / Other" menu.
- ESS[R]: (bug fix) ess-quit (bound to `C-c C-q`) should now quit the inferior R process, when issued from either the inferior buffer, or from a .R buffer.

Changes/New Features in 5.2.1:

- ESS[S] (R and S-plus): now have toolbar support with icons to evaluate code in the inferior process or to switch there. This code is experimental and likely to change as XEmacs/Emacs issues get resolved. The toolbar should be enabled if your Emacs displays images, but can be disabled with the variable ess-use-toolbar. Thanks to David Smith from Insightful for the S-plus logo.
- ESS[SAS]: ess-sas-graph-view (`F12`) enhanced; you can specify external file viewers for each graphics file type via the alist ess-sas-graph-view-viewer-alist; also .jpg/.gif are now handled by image-mode on XEmacs, if available, otherwise by graphics primitives as before

Changes/New Features in 5.2.0:

- ESS[BUGS]: new info documentation! now supports interactive processing thanks to Aki Vehtari; new architecture-independent unix support as well as support for BUGS v. 0.5
- ESS[SAS]: convert .log to .sas with ess-sas-transcript; info documentation improved; Local Variable bug fixes; SAS/IML statements/functions now highlighted; files edited remotely by ange-ftp/EFS/tramp are recognized and pressing SUBMIT opens a buffer on the remote host via the local variable ess-sas-shell-buffer-remote-init which defaults to "ssh"; changed the definition of the variable ess-sas-edit-keys-toggle to boolean rather than 0/1; added the function ess-electric-run-semicolon which automatically reverse indents lines containing only "run;"; `C-F1` creates MS RTF portrait from the current buffer; `C-F2` creates MS RTF landscape from the current buffer; `C-F9` opens a SAS DATASET with PROC INSIGHT rather than PROC FSVIEW; "inferior" aliases for SAS batch: `C-c C-r` for submit region, `C-c C-b` for submit buffer, `C-c C-x` for goto .log; `C-c C-y` for goto .lst
- ESS[S]: Pressing underscore ("_") once inserts " <- " (as before); pressing underscore twice inserts a literal underscore. To stop this smart behaviour, add "(ess-toggle-underscore nil)" to your .emacs after ess-site has been loaded; ess-dump-filename-template-proto (new name!) now can be customized successfully (for S language dialects); Support for Imenu has been improved; set ess-imenu-use-S to non-nil to get an "Imenu-S" item on your menubar; ess-help: Now using nice underlines (instead of ‘nuke-* ^H_’)
- ESS[R]: After (require ’essa-r), `M-x ess-r-var` allows to load numbers from any Emacs buffer into an existing *R* process; `M-x ess-rdired` gives a “directory editor” of R objects; fixed ess-retr-lastvalue-command, i.e. .Last.value bug (thanks to David Brahm)
- ESS: Support for creating new window frames has been added to ESS. Inferior ESS processes can be created in dedicated frames by setting inferior-ess-own-frame to t. ESS help buffers can also open in new frames; see the documentation for ess-help-own-frame for details. (Thanks to Kevin Rodgers for contributing code.)

Changes/New Features in 5.1.24:

- The version number is now correct even inside ESS/Emacs

Changes/New Features in 5.1.23:

- Minor more Makefile clean up.

Changes/New Features in 5.1.22:

- Besides info documentation, PDF and HTML documentation are also provided (instead of built using "make") and available on the web as well; see ESS web page and StatLib
- Now that info documentation is available, the README.* files are no longer supported. However, they are still distributed for what it’s worth.
- ESS is now an XEmacs package! See XEmacs Installation HOWTO for details (specifically, items 10-15).
- ESS[SAS]: more user-friendly enhancements for remote SAS batch jobs with Kermit file transfers (LOG and OUTPUT function key features now supported). Multiple shells now supported so you can run SAS on different computers from different buffers by setting the buffer-local variable ess-sas-shell-buffer to unique buffer names.
- Major re-vamping of Makefile/Makeconf.

Changes/New Features in 5.1.21:

- ESS[SAS]: info documentation now available!, see ESS->Help for SAS; `F12` opens GSASFILE nearest point for viewing either within emacs, when available, or via an external viewer; more syntax highlighting keywords; more enhancements for remote SAS batch jobs with Kermit; new framework for remote SAS interactive jobs, see ess-remote
- ESS[S]: info documentation now available!, see ESS->Help for the S family
- Makefile: tag now independent of rel; info files made by doc/Makefile and installed in new info sub-directory

Changes/New Features in 5.1.20:

- New ‘options()$STERM’ in the S dialects (S, S-Plus, R). The S program can determine the environment in which it is currently running. ESS sets the option to ‘iESS’ or ‘ddeESS’ when it starts an S language process. We recommend other specific values for S language processes that ESS does not start.
- New ‘ess-mouse-me’ function, assigned to S-mouse-3 by default. User may click on a word or region and then choose from the menu to display the item, or a summary, or a plot, etc. This feature is still under development.
- GNU Emacs 21.1 is now supported (fixed for S dialects, SAS & BUGS), (some from Stephen Eglen).
- XEmacs 21.x is now supported (fixed w32-using-nt bug)
- XEmacs on Win (NT) is better supported.
- Workaround for bug in Sqpe+6 (S-PLUS 6 for Win).
- should now work even when imenu is not available (for old XEmacsen).
- ESS[SAS]: XEmacs-Imenu fix; `C-TAB` is globalized along with your function-key definitions, if specified; you can specify your SAS library definitions outside of autoexec.sas for ess-sas-data-view with SAS code placed in the variable ess-sas-data-view-libname, also the dataset name is defaulted to the nearest permanent dataset to point; Speedbar support now works for permanent datasets, please ignore first./last.; new font-locking is now the default with more improvements for font-locking PROCs, macro statements, * ; and %* ; comments; you can toggle sas-log-mode with `F10` which will font-lock your .log (if it isn’t too big); submit remote .sas files accessed with ange-ftp, EFS or Tramp (Kermit is experimental) by setting ess-sas-submit-method to ’sh; ess-sas-submit-command and ess-sas-submit-command-options are buffer-local so you can have local file variable sections at the end of your .sas files to request different executables or specify special options and the local file variables are re-read at submit instead of only at file open so that if you make a change it is picked up immediately;
- ESS[BUGS]: font-lock with ‘in’ fixed.
- for STATA: font-lock bug fixed.
- for Rd mode: `C-c C-v` and ‘switch-process’ in menu. further, `C-c C-f` prefix (Rd-font) for inserting or surrounding a word by things such as \code{.}, \code{\link{.}}, \emph{.} etc.
- new functions (ess-directory-function) and (ess-narrow-to-defun) ess-directory <-> default-directory logic (Jeff Mincy).
- Re-organized Makefile and fixed a few bugs.

Changes/New Features in 5.1.19:

- S+6 now supported (Tony Rossini (Unix) and Rich Heiberger (Windows))
- New BUGS support through ESS[BUGS] mode (Rodney Sparapani) Templates assist you in writing .bug and .cmd code (.cmd and .log are replaced by .bmd and .bog to avoid emacs extension collisions). Substitution" parameters facilitate "automagic" generation of data...in" and "init...in" filenames, "const N=" from your data file and "monitor()/stats()" commands. Activated by pressing `F12`.
- Fixes for ‘ess-smart-underscore’ SAS breakage (Rich Heiberger)
- You can change between PC and Unix, local and global SAS function-key definitions interactively (Rich Heiberger)
- `C-Submit` a highlighted region to SAS batch (Rodney Sparapani)
- New and improved SAS syntax highlighting (Rodney Sparapani) To get the new functionality, set ess-sas-run-make-regexp to nil. Also available in .log files via `F10`.
- Open a permanent SAS dataset for viewing via `F9` (Rodney Sparapani) You must have the library defined in autoexec.sas for it to work.
- User-friendly defaults for ‘sas-program’, ‘ess-sas-batch-pre-command’ and ‘ess-sas-batch-post-command’ as well Customize support for these and other ESS[SAS] variables (Rodney Sparapani)
- ‘ess-sas-suffix-2’ now defaults to .dat via `F11` (Rodney Sparapani)
- Emacs/XEmacs, Unix/Windows issues collectively handled in ess-emcs.el
- defadvice solves problem of missing *ESS* (thanks to Jeff Mincy)
- Improved manual a bit by including things that were only in ‘README’.

Changes/New Features in 5.1.18:

- New ‘ess-smart-underscore’ function, now assigned to "_" by default. Inserts ‘ess-S-assign’ (customizable " <- "), unless inside string and comments where plain "_" is used instead. (MM)
- Fixes for longstanding interactive SAS breakage (RMH)

Changes/New Features in 5.1.17:

- Documentation for Windows Installation (Rich Heiberger)
- removal of ess-vars, finalization of customize support (in the sense that there is no more use of ess-vars, but that we need to fix ess-cust) (AJ Rossini)
- Many small (and large) fixes/contributions (MMaechler)
- addition of the "S-equal" variable and provide `M-x ess-add-MM-keys` a way to remap "_" to ‘ess-S-assign’, typically " <- ", but customizable. (MMaechler)

Changes/New Features in 5.1.16:

- BUG FIXES
- Better SAS support

Changes/New Features in 5.1.15:

- BUG FIXES

Changes/New Features in 5.1.14:

- Yet more fixes to SAS mode, (Rich Heiberger and Rodney Sparapani)
- Customize support (for most Emacsen which support it) (AJRossini)
- ARC and ViSta support out of the box, and fixes for XLispStat (AJRossini)

Changes/New Features in 5.1.13:

- Version numbering finally all depending on the ./VERSION file, thanks to Martin Maechler.
- Yet more fixes to SAS mode, thanks to Rich Heiberger.

Changes/New Features in 5.1.12:

- Splus 5.1 stabilized, thanks to Martin Maechler, Bill Venables, Chuck Taylor, and others.
- More fixes to SAS mode, thanks to Rodney Sparapani and Rich Heiberger.

Changes/New Features in 5.1.11:

- More fixes to Stata mode, thanks to Brendan Halpin.
- fixed bugs in ESS-elsewhere, thanks to many testers
- README.SPLUS4WIN has DETAILED instructions for S-PLUS 2000, thanks to David Brahm.
- Fixes to SAS mode, thanks to Rodney Sparapani

Changes/New Features in 5.1.10:

- More fixes to Stata mode
- primitive generic version of ESS-elsewhere
- Small fixes to SAS/Stata.

Changes/New Features in 5.1.9:

- Stata mode works
- Literate Data Analysis using Noweb works

Changes/New Features in 5.1.8:

- Bug fixes
- R documentation mode defaults changed

Changes/New Features in 5.1.2:

- able to use inferior iESS mode to communicate directly with a running S-Plus 4.x process using the Microsoft DDE protocol. We use the familiar (from Unix ESS) `C-c C-n` and related key sequences to send lines from the S-mode file to the inferior S process. We continue to edit S input files in ESS[S] mode and transcripts of previous S sessions in ESS Transcript mode. All three modes know the S language, syntax, and indentation patterns and provide the syntactic highlighting that eases the programming tasks.