[Rd] a hack regarding "No documentation ...."

[Mike R]

> > ?somecharacters
> No documentation for 'somecharacters' in specified packages and libraries:
> you could try 'help.search("somecharacters")'
> >
> 
> I'm looking for some advice.  I'd like to hack my source code
> in such a way that the empty prompt line above is "pre-filled"
> with the suggested command.  In effect, this would make it
> unnecessary to copy-paste (or type)
> help.search("somecharacters")
> 
> If I did not want to execute the suggested command, I would
> Ctrl-c the pre-filled line.
> 
> Alternatively, the hack could implement a query, as in:
> 
> > ?somecharacters
> No documentation for 'somecharacters' in specified packages and libraries:
> you could try:
> 0 - help.search("somecharacters")
> 1 - RSiteSearch("somecharacters")
> 2 -  apropos(somecharacters)
> 3 - etc .....
> <enter> - no action
> 
> .... in which case, typing 0, 1, 2, 3, ... and <enter> would issue
> the corresponding command,  or would pre-fill a command line
> with the corresponding command (which could then be edited).
> 
> Alternatively, the hack could add the recommended commands to
> the command history, in which case I could use the up/down
> arrows to navigate to them.
> 
> I suppose it might be the case that a similar feature is already
> part of R, and that I am just not aware of it.  As a newbie, I spend
> most of my time searching/reading documentation.
> 
> Any comments regarding the possible alternatives that I've
> mentioned, or offers of your own alternatives, would be
> appreciated, as would be suggestions or mini-outlines for
> implementing the hack.
> 
> TIA,
> Mike


sorry, forgot to mention my platform:
         _                
platform i686-pc-linux-gnu
arch     i686             
os       linux-gnu        
system   i686, linux-gnu  
status                    
major    2                
minor    1.0              
year     2005             
month    04               
day      18               
language R