[R] new help pages in R 2.10.0

[Robert Baer]

> Robert Baer wrote:
>>
>>> 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.
>> The nice thing about the chtml that is missing from html is the "table of 
>> contents" frame on the left.  Oh well!
>>
> But you do have the 'Index' link at the bottom of every page.
> Works for me. Just takes a little getting used to.

Thanks for pointing it out.  Astoundingly, I missed this link with my old 
eyes <G>.  Not quite the same as having a panel, but now its about user 
interface and not functionality, so I'm much happier.

In future versions, it would be nice if this <index> link at least forced a 
new browser tab when clicked.  Likewise, it would be nice if links on the 
"index page" did not write over the index. The goal would be to allow 
content to be viewed "more or less" simultaneously with the index 
information.

The other question is whether there is a way to start the httpd help server 
in the background during the R startup sequence.   The first call to help 
during an R session seems to incur a delay which I'm guessing is spent 
connecting to localhost and starting the httpd server.  Has anyone 
discovered any tricks to make the httpd help engine start-up more seemless?

Rob