[Rd] problem with help.start() in R (PR#1156)

[Prof Brian Ripley]

I tested Opera 5.0 under Linux (www.opera.com).  It worked with -remote
correctly.  What I did not get to work was the search engine, but I saw no
sign of Java support for Opera under Linux. (For Windows it is a separate
add-on.)

I've amended the documentation, but I do wonder if
help.start(browser="foo") should set options(browser="foo").

B

On Wed, 31 Oct 2001, Kurt Hornik wrote:

> >>>>> Dinh-Tuan Pham writes:
>
> > Prof Brian Ripley writes:
> >> On Wed, 31 Oct 2001 Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr wrote:
> >>
> >> >        The function help.start() assume that the brower is netscape
> >> > which is no longer the dominant brower in used. I am using now opera
> >>
> >> On what operating system is this?  On Unix/Linux you should be using
> >> options(browser="opera").  On Windows/Mac you can't set the browser
> >> anyway.
>
> > on Linux, actually
>
> >> > help.start(browser="opera"), but it is not convenience: I would like
> >> > to be able to set the default brwsernone for all. But the real bug is
> >> > that even after launching help.start(browser="opera"), other help
> >> > commands, help(help), say, still send the "help page" to netscape. Here
> >> > is what I get
> >> >
> >> > > help.start(browser="opera")
> >> > If opera  is already running,   it is *not* restarted,
> >> >  and you must switch to its window.
> >> > Otherwise, be patient..
> >> > > help(help)
> >> > help() for help  is shown in browser netscape ...
> >> > Use      help( help , htmlhelp=FALSE)
> >> > or       options(htmlhelp = FALSE)
> >> > to revert.
> >> > > sh: netscape: command not found
> >> >
> >> > Please correct this bug.
> >>
> >> I don't think it is a bug in R but I have expanded the documentation.
> >>
> >> Please do use the bug.report() function, as critical information is
> >> missing from this report.
>
> > I am sorry not having looked carefully on the documentation. But the
> > first thing I do is to launch help.start() and be stuck with an
> > inexistent browser. I have imagined that help.start(browser="opera")
> > would set the browser to opera, but I am wrong and the browser must be
> > set by options(browser="opera"), a feature which I am not aware of.
> > Nevertheless, I find this rather confusing for a new user: if
> > options(browser="opera") should always be used to set the browser,
> > then the argument browser="opera" in help.start would never be needed.
>
> The documentation issue may be unfortunate, but there is really no point
> unless we find browsers other than Netscape which can be controlled
> remotely.  I have been raising this issue a couple of times, last time
> about three months ago or so.  Mozilla then claimed to support -remote
> as Netscape does but really did not.  Konqueror does not allow being
> sent URLs remotely, and neither does gnome-help-browser.  Not sure about
> Opera ... do you have more info?
>
> -k
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-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272860 (secr)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595

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