[Rd] Dynamic help pages

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "DM" == Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca>
>>>>>     on Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:07:13 -0400 writes:

    DM> On 7/15/2009 9:47 AM, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
    >> I've just committed code that allows R to be built with support for 
    >> dynamic help pages using \Sexpr in Rd files.  Define USE_NEW_HELP and 
    >> the R function tools:::.convertRdfiles will be used instead of the Perl 
    >> RdConv script, supporting \Sexpr and using the new R converters.
    >> 
    >> Currently only text help has the macros evaluated when the user asks for 
    >> help; the others are rendered at install time.  Hopefully HTML rendering 
    >> will also be in place before the 2.10.x release.  I can't see how CHM 
    >> and Latex help pages would ever be dynamic. Build time evaluation of 
    >> \Sexpr macros is not yet supported.
    >> 
    >> The only man page currently containing \Sexpr is ?tools::Rd2HTML.


    DM> This message may be a little premature:  the USE_NEW_HELP setting only 
    DM> affects base packages so far.  I'll see if I can get R CMD INSTALL 
    DM> working too, but it might take a while....

    DM> Duncan Murdoch

In any case, it's great to see your work progressing in these
directions. I expect this will have great potential indeed. 
Thank you very much!

Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich