[Rd] Links to non-vignette documentation

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 2/23/2006 5:49 PM, hadley wickham wrote:
>> We were referring to an HTML index file.  If you want to have a
>> reference from your package man page (foo-package.Rd) or some other man
>> page, you can use \url{../doc/my.pdf} and the link will work in HTML
>> versions of help, and won't be too misleading in other versions
>> (especially if you explain how to use it).
> 
> Ok, I'll give that a go.
> 
>> I don't think you can do that, but you should be using a package man
>> page anyway.
> 
> Can you suggest a good example of a package man page?  I've tried a
> few packages and haven't been able to find one.  The example generated
> by promptPackage suggests I need to duplicate the contents of
> DESCRIPTION and INDEX.

All of the base packages have them; some contain more than others.  I 
don't know which ones I'd consider to be "good".

They are meant to replace the INDEX, which you shouldn't need to create 
any more.  The DESCRIPTION file is still needed, but it contains more 
structured information meant for mechanical reading and processing; the 
package man page is meant to be the place to put things intended for 
people to read.

Duncan Murdoch