[Rd] RFC: allow packages to advertise vignettes on Windows

[Simon Urbanek]

On May 14, 2007, at 7:15 PM, Seth Falcon wrote:

> Hello,
>
> The vignette concept, which started in Bioconductor, seems to be  
> catching on.  They are supported by R CMD build/check and  
> documented in the Writing R Extensions manual.  I think vignettes  
> are a fantastic way to introduce new users to a package.  However,  
> getting new users to realize that a vignette is available can be  
> challenging.
>
> For some time now, we have had a function in Biobase that creates a  
> "Vignettes" menu item in the R Windows GUI and gives packages a  
> mechanism to register their vignettes so that they appear on this  
> menu.  I would like to see this functionality included in R so that  
> there can be a standard mechanism that doesn't depend on Biobase of  
> registering a package's vignettes with one of the R GUIs (currently  
> only Windows is supported, but I imagine the OS X GUI could also  
> implement this).
>

The Mac OS X GUI already has a Vignettes-browser - just click on  
"Help" -> "Vignettes"

I don't think using a menu list is a good idea as it substantially  
limits the UI. Also as the number of packages grows, you'll end up  
which dozens of entries in the menu which will render it useless.

Cheers,
Simon