[R] Building static HTML help pages in R 2.10.x on Windows

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 07/01/2010 2:58 PM, Kevin Wright wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 9:32 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
>
> > On 07/01/2010 10:00 AM, Michal Kulich wrote:
> >
> >> On 7.1.2010 15:52, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
> >> > Not necessarily.  The current help system can display information about
> >> > the current session, e.g. the result of ls(), as a simple example.  But
> >> > if you use a single background session you won't get relevant
> >> information.
> >> > > Duncan Murdoch
> >>
> >> Sorry, I must admit I don't get it.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> > A more useful example than ls() would be methods().   I think it would be
> > nice to have a list of methods included in the man page for a generic
> > function, and links to their pages if they have their own man pages.  You
> > might want to list all installed methods, with some sort of highlighting to
> > indicate which ones are already attached, or perhaps be able to toggle
> > between installed and attached, or whatever.  None of that is possible with
> > static help, not even a list of installed methods, because someone might
> > install a new package that offers some others after the static help has
> > already been built.
> >
>
> You just need to use some imagination.
> >
>
> OK, I'll try imagining this approach:
> - Static help pages are installed with R.
> - install.packages() launches a subroutine to fix the \link references that
> need updating.  Uninstalling needs to do the same.  (Busywork, but that's
> why we have computers.)
> - I have an R object "foo".  I type ShowMeAllMethodsFor("foo",
> installed=TRUE, attached=TRUE) which checks all installed packages and
> attached packages for appropriate methods, then serves up a dynamic help
> page with links to the relevant static help pages, color-coded by
> installed/attached.

I don't like the fragmentation of the R help system.  This just produces 
yet another set of pages which are not reachable from anywhere but one 
place.

The help system should be a network of pages which are all 
interconnected.  I should be able to click on something in the ?plot 
page and get to the ?plot.formula page (which I can do now, based on a 
static link) or the ?plot.foo page (which hasn't been written yet, but 
will be by the time I look at ?plot).

Duncan Murdoch