[R] help in a separate window under linux

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Thu, 20 Sep 2001, Richard A. Bilonick wrote:

> Hi,
>
> None of these "pager" things work right. No matter what I set up, if I type
>
>
> > page(data.frame.name)
>
> a window opens and the object structure is shown. This can certainly be useful
> when transferring data, but it's not usually what I want. I would like to see
> the data in a table format, similar to what "print" does but in a separate,
> scrollable window, more like what S does.

Well, it works as documented and as its author intended, so in that sense
it `works right'.  I really do want to look at dumps of e.g. data frames
to check that the internal structure is as I intended.  If I wanted a
scrollable view I would use edit() in R and Edit.data() in S-PLUS on
Windows.  functions for tasks ....

The difference is that S uses print, R uses dput.   It would be easy to
add this as an option to page(), but I would want to preserve the current
behaviour.



>
> Rick Bilonick
>
> >I suspect that installing xless and use that as the pager might be easier...
>
> >
> >Andy
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Peter Dalgaard BSA [mailto:p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk]
> >> Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 8:34 AM
> >> To: baron at cattell.psych.upenn.edu
> >> Cc: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch; stuart.leask at nottingham.ac.uk
> >> Subject: Re: [R] help in a separate window under linux
> >>
> >>
> >> baron at cattell.psych.upenn.edu (Jonathan Baron) writes:
> >>
> >> > >From owner-r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch Tue Sep 18 07:23:04 2001
> >> > >Is there a simple way of configuring R under linux to put
> >> its help messages
> >> > >into a separate, new console?
> >> >
> >> > 1. help.start() puts them in a browser.
> >> >
> >> > 2. You can make a bookmark or button on your browser for the R
> >> > documents in html on your disk, usually in /usr/lib/R/doc/html.
> >> >
> >> > 3. You can have R itself running twice in different windows, once
> >> > just for help.  This is probably the most straightforward answer.
> >> > (In Gnome, you can put it in a different virtual desktop, and
> >> > switch back and forth with alt-shift-arrow - which is exceedingly
> >> > easy on a Kinesis keyboard.  I do this because my monitor is only
> >> > 17 inches, which is about right for one window.)
> >> >
> >> > 4. You can use ESS, which uses the bottom half of the screen for
> >> > help.  I usually find that I want the whole screen, though, so I
> >> > end up closing the help window.
> >> >
> >> > Perhaps there are other answers.  Jon Baron
> >>
> >> 5. library(tcltk); options(pager=tkpager)
> >>
> >> 6. options(pager="./mypager") with mypager
> >> #!/bin/sh
> >> cat > /tmp/foo
> >> xterm -e less /tmp/foo &
> >>
> >> (getting a unique tempfile name and removing it when you're through
> >> reading is - um - an exercise for the reader)
> >>
> >> 7. options(pager=function(file, header, title, delete.file)
> >>      system(paste("xterm", "-e less", file, "&")))
> >>
> >> (getting the title right is going to be tricky:  it is generally
> >> something like "R Help on `ls'" and the quotes will confuse
> >> the shell)
> >>
> >> The latter two obviously only work when less is installed...
> >>
> >> --
> >>    O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3
> >>   c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N
> >>  (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph:
> >> (+45) 35327918
> >> ~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)             FAX:
> >> (+45) 35327907
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> >
> >
> Rick Bilonick
> ---
> rab at nauticom.net
> http://www.nauticom.net
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-- 
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 272860 (secr)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595

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