[R] new help pages in R 2.10.0

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Fri, 6 Nov 2009, Robert  Baer wrote:

>> 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.

I think you should collect some data rather than guess.

> Has anyone discovered any tricks to make the httpd help engine 
> start-up more seemless?

Well, the delays for me are very small.  People are reporting delays 
in starting the browser, especially on Windows.  (I find Chrome starts 
there faster than Firefox or IE8, but I mainly use Firefox on Linux.)

Starting the server is down by tools::startDynamicHelp().  And on my 
MacBook Air:

> system.time(tools::startDynamicHelp())
starting httpd help server ... done
    user  system elapsed
   0.019   0.002   0.021

and in a new session

> system.time(help.start())
starting httpd help server ... done
If '/usr/bin/open' is already running, it is *not* restarted, and you
     must switch to its window.
Otherwise, be patient ...
    user  system elapsed
   0.022   0.007   0.035

and the page is up in Firefox faster than I can time.

On my early 2005 vintage Windows XP laptop (slow by today's 
standards):

> system.time(tools::startDynamicHelp())
starting httpd help server ... done
    user  system elapsed
    0.05    0.02    0.25

and

> system.time(tools::startDynamicHelp())
starting httpd help server ... done
    user  system elapsed
    0.05    0.02    0.25

with a web page shown in Firefox 3.5.4 in 3 seconds.  (It does help to 
have run Firefox recently in the Windows session.)


There is no known problem with the speeds of R's components, so if you 
are not seeing comparable times you need to get your system 
investigated.

-- 
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 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595