[ESS-bugs] ess-mode 5.2.7; cannot get help for contour()

[Stephen Eglen]

Stephen Eglen writes:
 >  > 
 >  >   > options("help.try.all.packages" = TRUE)
 >  >   > ?rlm
 >  > 
 >  > you get an  *help[R](rlm)*  buffer with the content
 >  > 
 >  > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >  >   Help for topic 'rlm' is not in any loaded package but can be found in the
 >  >   following packages:
 >  > 
 >  >     Package               Library
 >  >     MASS                  /u/maechler/R/D/r-devel/64-linux-inst/library
 >  > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >  > 
 >  > Now if the user consequently loads MASS :
 >  > 
 >  >     > library(MASS)
 >  > 
 >  > and types
 >  > 
 >  >     > ?rlm
 >  > 
 >  > again, I would have wanted that  the previous *help[R](rlm)*
 >  > buffer was considered  'bogous' and hence a new buffer would be
 >  > written with the correct content  {the real help on rlm() in MASS}.
 > 
 > Thanks.  Now I see the problem.  
 > 
 > One solution might be for the lisp to parse the help buffer; if it
 > begins with 
 > 
 >  Help for topic '...' is not in any loaded package but can be found in the
 >  following packages:
 > 
 > then we can rename the buffer, e.g. to *help[R](rlm in packages)*
 > 
 > so that presumably if MASS is then loaded, a call to "?rlm" will then
 > create the new buffer *help[R](rlm)* rather than try to re-use the old
 > one (since the old one will have a different name).
 > 
 > Going back to the code:
 > 
 >     StEgl> ;; search in first nr-first (default 120) chars only
 >     StEgl> (and nil (if (not nr-first) (setq nr-first 120)))
 > 
 > should we put that check back in so that regular help files are not
 > labelled as bogus just for having the text "no documention" in them
 > after the first couple of lines?
 > 
 > If the above sounds sensible, I'll add some test code.

I just committed some code to ess-help.el to do this.  Please try the
following commands in R to test:

(setq ess-help-kill-bogus-buffers t)

R:
> ?contour

[should now be displayed okay; previously was killed as bogus.]

> options("help.try.all.packages" = TRUE)
> ?rlm

should get a buffer called *help[R](rlm in packages)*

and then if you 
> library(MASS)
> ?rlm

you should get *help[R](rlm)*

(rlm in packages) does not disappear.


Stephen