See the documentation for ESS in the ESS distribution ess/doc/html/readme.html
There is even more detail in ess/doc/html/ess.html For the specific question about the emacs initialization file ~/.emacs, that file is in your home directory which emacs will find. The "~" abbreviation is required and is interpreted to be your home directory. In emacs C-x C-f ~/.emacs <RET> Then enter the line (require 'ess-site) and save the file with C-x C-s Further questions should be directed to the ESS-help mailing list at ess-h...@stat.math.ethz.ch Rich ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.