[Rd] help.start() and Debian packaging (PR#8483)

[ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk]

This is all based on a false premise: that a partial install of Debian
files is 'R'.

R's own scripts do always install the HTML documentation, so help.start() 
is entitled to assume that it is present.  (That is under Unix-alikes: R 
for Windows allows Compiled HTML rather than HTML, and so help.start makes 
appropriate tests).

Note that your version of 'R' is not current.

If there is a bug here, it is in the Debian re-packaging.  I trust the 
Debian packages do contain a bug reporting address other than this one: 
please use the correct one.  (The other binary distributions that I am 
aware of, e.g. RPMs, do seem to include all of R.)

On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 greg.kochanski at phonetics.oxford.ac.uk wrote:

> Full_Name: Greg Kochanski
> Version: 2.2.0
> OS: Debian Linux on i686
> Submission from: (NULL) (212.159.16.190)
>
>
> Debian packages the R documentation separately from the R core code.
> Consequently, it is possible for people to have R without
> the HTML documentation.   (In fact, the docs are not installed by default,
> so it's very likely.)
>
>
> Thus, help.start() cannot depend on the HTML documentation being there.
> It should check for one (or a few) files and produce some reasonable
> error message if it is not there.   Maybe something like
> "Warning: the HTML documentation is not installed."
>
> Alternatively, help.start() could produce references to some on-line
> HTML documentation, instead of local documentation.
>
>
>
> A related bug is that if one calls
> help.start()  when the HTML documentation does not exist,
> all future calls to help() will lead to errors.

Working as documented is not a bug.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at 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 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595