[R] R help question: How can we enable useRs to contribute corrections to help files faster ?

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 28/02/2010 12:29 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
> Or both the short and and the long term won't happen.

That's one interpretation.  I'd prefer to think that the short term 
changes happened in November.  All the content is there; it just needs 
to be made prettier.

Duncan Murdoch

> 
> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 12:24 PM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
>> On 28/02/2010 12:04 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca>
>>> wrote:
>>>> Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>>>> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 28/02/2010 9:08 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On 28/02/2010 7:19 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> The name of the package is at the top of each help page and then
>>>>>>>>> library(help = myPackage) would get you the maintainer info.  Or in
>>>>>>>>> place of the last step googling for CRAN myPackage would get to a
>>>>>>>>> page
>>>>>>>>> like this:
>>>>>>>>> http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/zoo/index.html
>>>>>>>>> so it could be done in two steps.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> What would be nice would be if the R help systems HTML help page for
>>>>>>>>> each command had a link to a local version of the above page for the
>>>>>>>>> associated package (and perhaps the HTML Index page for the package
>>>>>>>>> would also link to it).  Then it would just be a matter of bringing
>>>>>>>>> up
>>>>>>>>> the help page and clicking on the package name at the top.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Not all of the information on that page would make sense locally.
>>>>>>>>  Some
>>>>>>>> of
>>>>>>>> it is there to help you decide whether to download the package, or to
>>>>>>>> actually download it.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The things I see that aren't available in the package index page in
>>>>>>>> R-devel:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>  - CRAN checks
>>>>>>>>  - download links
>>>>>>>>  - reverse dependencies
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Am I missing something?  None of those seem like they'd be sensible
>>>>>>>> locally.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> By Index page I was referring to the page you get when you click Index
>>>>>>> at the bottom of any HTML help file.  After clicking Index you get an
>>>>>>> HTML page that gives a clickable list of help pages for that package.
>>>>>>> You don`t get the description of the package, the name and contact
>>>>>>> info to the maintainer, or a link to such info.  For the
>>>>>>> helloJavaWorld package this is what you get (where I have added a star
>>>>>>> after each link):
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hello Java World
>>>>>>> Documentation for package ‘helloJavaWorld’ version 0.0-6
>>>>>>> User Guides and Package Vignettes
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Read overview* or browse directory*.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Help Pages
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> helloJavaWorld* Function to say hello from a Java class
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> That looks like 2.10.x or earlier.  In R-devel (to be 2.11.0) you get:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Documentation for package ‘helloJavaWorld’ version 0.0-7
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  * DESCRIPTION file.
>>>>>>  * Overview of user guides and package vignettes; browse directory.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Help Pages
>>>>>> helloJavaWorld  Function to say hello from a Java class
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The only addition for that particular package is the link to the
>>>>>> DESCRIPTION
>>>>>> file, which contains most of the additional information that's on the
>>>>>> CRAN
>>>>>> page.  Other pages will also show links to demos and package NEWS.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> That's great. Looks like you have already anticipated this.
>>>>>
>>>>> Would still be nice to have
>>>>>
>>>>> - a second link to the Index at the top of each help page since its
>>>>> typically off the screen otherwise.
>>>>>
>>>> Yes, I agree.  In fact, I think the whole system needs to be updated.
>>>>  Anyone like doing HTML design?
>>>>> - also if the DESCRIPTION could be HTMLized with links that would be
>>>>> nice.  The software that puts the DESCRIPTION file info up onto CRAN
>>>>> already can do that so the capability seems to exist.
>>>>>
>>>> Sure, but remember that CRAN is not part of R, so the code needs to be
>>>> extracted from the CRAN code (which I don't have a copy of), and
>>>> rewritten
>>>> to suit the new context.  It may not be any easier to do that than to
>>>> redo
>>>> it from scratch, but in any case, it needs someone to volunteer to do it
>>>> (and I think it should be part of the HTML design mentioned above.
>>>>> - a link from the Index or possibly right from each help page to the
>>>>> help.start() page so that once you are in HTML you can just click
>>>>> about rather than having to go back to R and then back into help.
>>>>> Its normal in web pages that there is a link on every one of them back
>>>>> to the home page.  Typically clicking the site name or logo at the top
>>>>> gets you there.
>>>> Currently from any help page you can get there in two clicks:  the
>>>> "Index"
>>>> link at the bottom of the page takes you to the package index, the up
>>>> arrow
>>>> on the package index takes you to the help.start() page.  But I agree
>>>> this
>>>> could be improved: see above.
>>>>
>>>> Duncan Murdoch
>>>>
>>> Couldn't this be separated into short term and long term.  Surely its
>>> trivial to add a second link to the Index at the top of every help
>>> page and that  is the most important of all the wish list items.  That
>>> shouldn't have to wait for a redesign (which could take some time)
>>> since its such an annoyance.
>> That's one argument.  Another is that the more of an annoyance it is, the
>> more likely someone will be motivated to fix it.  If we do a partial job to
>> remove the annoyance, the long term improvement might never happen.
>>
>> Duncan Murdoch
>>