Re: na=\"nil\" in ob-R.elo

[Berry, Charles]

> On Jan 14, 2021, at 3:42 PM, Brett Presnell <presnell@member.fsf.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> Probably a silly question, but in ob-R.el, what is the reason for
> setting na=\"nil\" when defining org-babel-R-write-object-command?  Is
> this an elisp compatibility thing?
> 

I don't get it either. The value corresponding to the NA becomes a string in 
emacs-lisp whether \"nil\" or \"\" is used.

So when passed to elisp via a :post header referencing an emacs-lisp src block, 
its treated as a string.   


> Regardless, I generally (always?) want na=\"\" for this, so I am finding
> all those "nil"s very annoying, and the only way that I see to defeat
> them is to redefine org-babel-R-write-object-command.
> 
> If there is no reason for the current behavior (doubtful I know) and if
> I am not missing an obvious work-around, then I would like to suggest
> changing this behavior.  Otherwise, would it be feasible to add an
> option for R code blocks (:nastring?) where one could specify the NA
> replacement string?
> 
> What do you think?  It's easy to suggest I know and certainly beyond my
> elisp coding skills at present, but I am supposing that someone more
> fluent in elisp could do this safely without too much trouble.
> 


You can use a :post header to customize outputs like this to make them more 
pleasing. Or just use your own `org-babel-R-write-object-command'.

Adding another header arg qualifies as feature creep and in this case would 
require non-trivial work to implement.

HTH,

Chuck