[Rd] bug in options() - help page (PR#1323)

[o.christensen@lancaster.ac.uk]

Dear R-developers

There is a discrepancy between the variables found by typing
names(options()) and the variables described on the help page for the
function ``options''.

The following variables are in names(options()) but not described on the
help page :

"error.messages"
"repositories"
"show.coef.Pvalues"
"help.try.all.packages"
"download.info"
"dvipscmd"

Since options() is part of ``base R'' and the homepage claims that the
options described there are the only options used by ``base R'', this
may be considered as a
bug.

The following variables are described on the help
page, but are not in names(options()):

error
show.error.messages
download.file.method
de.cellwidth
internet.info


I had a problem with the option ``show.error.messages'' which may be
related to this option not being in names(options()) (I do not claim to
understand how options() really work).
Reporting and checking a problem with ``show.error.messages'' is
actually confusing, since this option changes the printed output from
errors. Here is the problem and my comments on the output (consider
starting a fresh R session).

stop("test - err. mess. printed ")
## prints error mesage, unless ``show.error.messages=FALSE''
op <- options()
options(show.error.messages=FALSE)
stop("test - err. mess. printed ")
## as expected, nothing is printed
options(op)
stop("test - err. mess. printed ")
## Reseting the options, we expect to see the print. Nothing is printed
!


My temporary solution to the problem was to include 

options(show.error.messages=TRUE)

in my .Rprofile file


>  version
         _                
platform i686-pc-linux-gnu
arch     i686             
os       linux-gnu        
system   i686, linux-gnu  
status                    
major    1                
minor    4.1              
year     2002             
month    01               
day      30               
language R 



Cheers Ole

-- 
Ole F. Christensen
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Fylde College, Lancaster University 
Lancaster, LA1 4YF, England

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