It's quite true. Emacs has an R mode (ESS) and that is probably all you need. That said I think people are free to use whatever software they want, and this in

It's quite true. Emacs has an R mode (ESS) and that is probably all you need. That said I think people are free to use whatever software they want, and this includes non-free software that is technically and philosophically inferior such as in this case.