[R] RSiteSearch() not in posting guide
Martin Maechler
maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch
Tue Jul 18 17:12:42 CEST 2006
>>>>> "Gabor" == Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendieck at gmail.com>
>>>>> on Tue, 18 Jul 2006 09:29:07 -0400 writes:
Gabor> I think the posting guide may have been written prior
Gabor> to the existence of RSiteSearch as a builtin command.
yes, that's correct.
Thank you, Gavin, for the suggestion.
I have added such a "bullet". Visible now at svn.r-project.org,
and from tomorrow at the URL at the tail of every R-help
message.
Martin
Gabor> On 7/18/06, Gavin Simpson <gavin.simpson at ucl.ac.uk>
Gabor> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> In a recent reply I sent to the list, my initial response
>> was to suggest, politely that by reading the posting
>> guide and learning to use the supplied tools one can
>> often help oneself. I then went on to say that reading
>> the posting guide would have led you to
>> RSiteSearch("insert query"). Luckily I went to the
>> posting guide to check this was there before posting and
>> much to my surprise that page does not once mention this
>> excellent facility!
>>
>> In the section "Do your homework before posting:",
>> help.search() and ?foo are recommended, but these only
>> work for installed, and possibly loaded,
>> packages. Wouldn't it be better to suggest a user try
>> RSiteSearch("foo") as well? This way they are far more
>> likely to find something relevant if that something
>> resides on CRAN or the mailing list archives.
>>
>> Can I suggest adding another bullet with the following
>> text to the "Do your homework before posting:" section:
>>
>> Do RSiteSearch("keyword") with different keywords (type
>> this at the R prompt) to search R, contributed packages
>> and R-Help postings. To restrict the search to functions
>> only, use RSiteSearch("keyword", restrict =
>> "functions"). See ?RSiteSearch.
>>
>> or shorter:
>>
>> Do RSiteSearch("keyword") with different keywords (type
>> this at the R prompt) to search R functions, contributed
>> packages and R-Help postings. See ?RSiteSearch for
>> further options and to restrict searches.
>>
>> G
>> --
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>> Gavin Simpson [t] +44 (0)20 7679 0522 ECRC & ENSIS, UCL
>> Geography, [f] +44 (0)20 7679 0565 Pearson Building, [e]
>> gavin.simpsonATNOSPAMucl.ac.uk Gower Street, London [w]
>> http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfagls/cv/ London, UK. WC1E 6BT.
>> [w] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfagls/
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>>
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