[R] new help pages in R 2.10.0

[Henrik Bengtsson]

On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 11:03 PM,  <Antonio.Gasparrini at lshtm.ac.uk> wrote:
> Thanks to everyone who replied.
>
> I think the html based one works fine (even if I definitely preferred the old chtml).
> Only another comment: I chose html in my installation with Windows Vista, but still the help pages are opened in text files in the newly installed version.

Thanks for this report; few people pay attention to this and/or don't
recall what they're installation options were and/or  may not be
bothered to report it.  It turns out it is a known bug in the
installer, cf.

https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2009-November/055430.html

and it has been fixed recently in R v2.10.0 patched:

BUG FIXES

    o	The installer did not properly record help type choices in
	R_HOME/etc/Rprofile.site.

>From http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/CHANGES.R-2.10.0pat

You find updates on the latest patches (and the most recent developers
version) via:

  http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/

>
> Of course, I can type "options(help_type="html")" as suggested every time I open a new session, but it would be easier if html was actually the default, especially for other un-experienced users.

You can also add that code to the .Rprofile file that you have/can
create in your home directory, e.g. C:/Users/JohnDoe/.Rprofile.

/Henrik


>
> Thanks again
> Antonio
>
>>>> <apjaworski at mmm.com> 05/11/2009 20:33 >>>
>
> Antonio,
>
> Starting from 2.10, R dropped its support for Windows CHM  help.  It has been replaced with the web browser HTML based one.  To activate this add the following line to your Rprofile
>
> options(help_type="html")
>
> The pages come up in your browser.  They all have the same links as before.  It works quite well with Firefox as they come up in new tabs, so you can have several of them open at the same time.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Andy
>
> __________________________________
> Andy Jaworski
> 518-1-01
> Process Laboratory
> 3M Corporate Research Laboratory
> -----
> E-mail: apjaworski at mmm.com
> Tel:  (651) 733-6092
> Fax:  (651) 736-3122
>
>
>
> From: <Antonio.Gasparrini at lshtm.ac.uk> To: <r-help at r-project.org> Date: 11/05/2009 02:17 PM Subject: [R] new help pages in R 2.10.0 Sent by: <r-help-bounces at r-project.org>
>
>
>
>
> Dear R-users,
>
> I've just installed the last version of R (2.10.0) in Windows and found a completely new version of the help pages.
> Basically, they now appear as a simple (even if slightly embellished) text file.
> I tried to install it with a customized startup and realized that the old CHM files (the default for Windows up to 2.9.2) are not included anymore as a possible choice.
>
> I don't know if this is due to some mistake I've done, but otherwise would be a major drawback of the new version.
> The opportunity to navigate through different help pages using the links in the old R was really useful.
>
> At the moment I re-installed the old R 2.9.2, but I hope this will change in later versions.
> Or at least, that the user could have the opportunity to choose the help pages he deems more suitable for his purposes.
>
> I hope someone could give some details
> Regards,
>
> Antonio Gasparrini
> Public and Environmental Health Research Unit (PEHRU)
> London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
> Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, UK
> Office: 0044 (0)20 79272406 - Mobile: 0044 (0)79 64925523
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
>
>
>
>        [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>