Adding more columns to width of frame

[Judith]

Hello,

   I have been searching for the right commands to resize the width of
the frames. I am using Emacs v21.3.1 under x86_64-linux.

    I load ESS because I like running R within emacs, but I would like
to resize the display that appears in the R buffer. I handle data
frames with many columns and although I am able to resize the window,
the display is istill restricted to the same width, which seems to be
approximately 80 characters. What confuses me is the fact that this
restriction doesn't apply to the buffer containing the R script. I am
guessing that I need to make changes somewhere else andnot to .emacs?

    I tried the following command in .emacs without success.

(setq initial-frame-alist '(width .150))

    Any help will be very appreciated.

Thank you,


Judith