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

[Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr]

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.

-- 
PHAM Dinh Tuan                         | e-mail: Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr
Laboratoire de Modelisation et Calcul  | Tel: +33 4 76 51 44 23
BP 53, 38041 Grenoble cedex 9 (France) | Fax: +33 4 76 63 12 63
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