[R] pdf package help files

[Spencer Graves]

Hi, Joel:


       Thanks.  That doubtless was what Duncan meant.  "help.start()" -> 
Reference:  Packages provides access to HTML versions of all the help 
pages from all the packages.


       However, it does NOT provide access to the PDF version of the 
help pages for a package.  For that, you need to go to CRAN or run "R 
CMD Rd2dvi --pdf foo", as Duncan suggested.  And for the latter to work, 
you need to source for the package, which you can get from CRAN for CRAN 
packages.


       Best Wishes,
       Spencer


On 12/18/2010 2:46 PM, Joel Schwartz wrote:
> I think that should have been
>
> help.start()
>
>
> Joel
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org
>> [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Spencer Graves
>> Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2010 1:35 PM
>> To: Duncan Murdoch
>> Cc: r-help at r-project.org; eric
>> Subject: Re: [R] pdf package help files
>>
>> Hi, Duncan:
>>
>>
>>         I'm confused:
>>
>>
>> help_start()
>> Error: could not find function "help_start"
>>
>>
>>         Thanks,
>>         Spencer
>> sessionInfo()
>> R version 2.12.0 (2010-10-15)
>> Platform: i386-pc-mingw32/i386 (32-bit)
>>
>> locale:
>> [1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252 [2]
>> LC_CTYPE=English_United States.1252 [3]
>> LC_MONETARY=English_United States.1252 [4] LC_NUMERIC=C [5]
>> LC_TIME=English_United States.1252
>>
>> attached base packages:
>> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
>>   >
>>
>>
>> On 12/18/2010 1:19 PM, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
>>> On 18/12/2010 2:20 PM, eric wrote:
>>>> Newbie here...just learning
>>>>
>>>> Do most packages come with pdf versions of the help files
>> ? If yes,
>>>> how to I access the entire pdf file to be able to print it
>> ? Is there
>>>> a standard command for that ?
>>> No, the pdf version is not normally installed.  If you want
>> to see the
>>> same content on a locally installed package, run
>>>
>>> help_start()
>>>
>>> then browse to the package.  The pdf files are just concatenated
>>> versions of all the help pages shown in that index.
>>>
>>> You can produce the pdf using
>>>
>>> R CMD Rd2dvi --pdf foo
>>>
>>> where foo is a directory holding the source code to the package.
>>> Alternatively, as others have suggested, just look at the
>> PDF on CRAN.
>>> Duncan Murdoch
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
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>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>
>>