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https://github.com/jalvesaq/Nvim-R

Vim plugin to work with R
https://github.com/jalvesaq/Nvim-R

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Vim plugin to work with R

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README 

        
# Nvim-R



This is Nvim-R which improves Vim's support to edit R scripts.



> [!Note]

> For Neovim users, this plugin is superseded by [R.nvim](https://github.com/R-nvim/R.nvim).



## Installation



If you use a plugin manager, follow its instructions on how to install plugins

from GitHub.



James Eapen maintains an online version of the plugin's

[documentation](https://github.com/jamespeapen/Nvim-R/wiki).

Please, read the section

[Installation](https://github.com/jamespeapen/Nvim-R/wiki/Installation)

for details.



## Usage



Please read the plugin's

[documentation](https://github.com/jamespeapen/Nvim-R/wiki) for instructions on

[usage](https://github.com/jamespeapen/Nvim-R/wiki/Use).



## Screenshots



The animated GIF below shows R running in a [Neovim] terminal buffer. We can

note:



   1. The editor has some code to load Afrobarometer data on Mozambique, R is

      running below the editor and the Object Browser is on the right side. On

      the R Console, we can see messages inform some packages were loaded. The

      messages are in magenta because they were colorized by the package

      [colorout].



   2. When the command `library("foreign")` is sent to R, the string *read.spss*

      turns blue because it is immediately recognized as a loaded function

      (the Vim color scheme used is [southernlights]).



   3. When Mozambique's `data.frame` is created, it is automatically displayed

      in the Object Browser. Messages about unrecognized types are in magenta

      because they were sent to *stderr*, and the line *Warning messages* is in

      red because colorout recognized it as a warning.



   4. When the "label" attributes are applied to the `data.frame` elements, the

      labels show up in the Object Browser.



   5. The next images show results of omni completion.



   6. The last slide shows the output of `summary`.



![Nvim-R screenshots](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jalvesaq/Nvim-R/master/Nvim-R.gif "Nvim-R screenshots")



## The communication between R and either Vim or Neovim



The diagram below shows how the communication between Vim/Neovim and R works.

![Neovim-R communication](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jalvesaq/Nvim-R/master/nvimrcom.svg "Neovim-R communication")



The black arrows represent all commands that you trigger in the editor and

that you can see being pasted into R Console.

There are three different ways of sending the commands to R Console:



  - When running R in a Neovim built-in terminal, the function `chansend()`

    is used to send code to R Console.



  - When running R in an external terminal emulator, Tmux is used to send

    commands to R Console.



  - On the Windows operating system, Nvim-R can send a message to R (nvimcom)

    which forwards the command to R Console.



The R package *nvimcom* includes the application *nvimrserver* which is never

used by R itself, but is run as a Vim/Neovim's job. That is, the communication

between the *nvimrserver* and Vim/Neovim is through the *nvimrserver* standard

input and output (green arrows). The *nvimrserver* application runs a TCP

server. When *nvimcom* is loaded, it immediately starts a TCP client that

connects to *nvimrserver* (red arrows).



Some commands that you trigger are not pasted into R Console and do not output

anything in R Console; their results are seen in the editor itself. These are

the commands to do omnicompletion (of names of objects and function

arguments), start and manipulate the Object Browser (`\ro`, `\r=` and `\r-`),

call R help (`\rh` or `:Rhelp`), insert the output of an R command

(`:Rinsert`) and format selected text (`:Rformat`).



When new objects are created or new libraries are loaded, nvimcom sends

messages that tell the editor to update the Object Browser, update the syntax

highlight to include newly loaded libraries and open the PDF output after

knitting an Rnoweb file and compiling the LaTeX result. Most of the

information is transmitted through the TCP connection to the *nvimrserver*,

but temporary files are used in a few cases.



## See also:



   - [cmp-nvim-r](https://github.com/jalvesaq/cmp-nvim-r): [nvim-cmp](https://github.com/hrsh7th/nvim-cmp) source using Nvim-R as backend.



   - [languageserver](https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/languageserver/index.html): a language server for R.



   - [colorout](https://github.com/jalvesaq/colorout): a package to colorize R's output.



[Neovim]: https://github.com/neovim/neovim

[southernlights]: https://github.com/jalvesaq/southernlights

[colorout]: https://github.com/jalvesaq/colorout