[R] Firefox not showing R help.

[Ista Zahn]

I think this might be due to the removal of the -remote option in
firefox. Some discussion and details are available at
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2015-02/msg00946.html

Best,
Ista

On Sun, Mar 1, 2015 at 7:14 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 28/02/2015 6:43 PM, Rolf Turner wrote:
>>
>> See inline below.
>>
>> On 01/03/15 10:59, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
>>> On 28/02/2015 4:10 PM, Rolf Turner wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Firefox recently updated itself on my laptop.  Now when I ask for R help
>>>> --- e.g. ?plot --- I just get my home page. And no help. If I do "?plot"
>>>> again after Firefox has opened its window, I just get yet another
>>>> Firefox window, opened to my home page.  (I have my preferences set to
>>>>
>>>>       "When Firefox starts Show my homepage"
>>>>
>>>> --- as I always have had in the past.)
>>>
>>> I would guess that browseURL() won't work for any URL.  Is that right?
>>
>> Yes.  That is correct. E.g. if I do
>>
>>      browseURL("http://www.r-project.org/")
>>
>> I get taken to my home page, rather than to the R home page.
>>
>>>
>>> What does getOption("browser") give you in R?
>>
>> "/usr/bin/firefox"
>>
>>> If it is just a character
>>> string (e.g. "xdg-open" is what I get in Ubuntu), does it work from your
>>> command line, outside of R, e.g. for me that test would be
>>>
>>> xdg-open http://www.r-project.org
>>
>> I tried
>>
>>     /usr/bin/firefox http://www.r-project.org/
>>
>> from the Linux command line and was taken to the R home page,
>> seamlessly.  I also tried
>>
>>      xdg-open http://www.r-project.org/
>>
>> and that worked equally well.
>>
>> Finally I tried
>>
>>      options(browser="xdg-open")
>>
>> and then
>>
>>      ?plot
>>
>> and BINGO!!! the HTML help came up as requested.
>>
>> So I have a working solution to my problem.  But I *really* don't
>> understand why changing the browser from "/usr/bin/firefox" to
>> "xdg-open" made a difference.  (Since there appears to be no difference
>> at the Linux command line.)
>>
>> Anyway; thanks very much for solving my problem.
>
> I believe browseURL will quote the URL, i.e. it would execute
>
> /usr/bin/firefox "http://www.r-project.org/"
>
> Perhaps Firefox is confused by the quotes?  Doesn't seem likely...
>
> Duncan Murdoch
>
>
>>
>> cheers,
>>
>> Rolf
>>
>>>
>>> If that doesn't work, but you can figure out a command line way to open
>>> a particular URL, change getOption("browser") to use that.
>>>
>>> Duncan Murdoch
>>>
>>>>
>>>> The Firefox that I am currently running is (according Firefox help
>>>> --> "About Firefox") is version 36.0.
>>>>
>>>> Can anyone suggest to me how I can get my html R help back?
>>>>
>>>> For what it's worth:  I am using Linux, Fedora 17.  (Yes, I know it's
>>>> elderly, but then so am I. :-) )
>>>>
>>>> Also in case it has any relevance:
>>>>
>>>>>> sessionInfo()
>>>>> R version 3.1.2 (2014-10-31)
>>>>> Platform: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu (64-bit)
>>>>>
>>>>> locale:
>>>>>   [1] LC_CTYPE=en_NZ.utf8       LC_NUMERIC=C
>>>>>   [3] LC_TIME=en_NZ.utf8        LC_COLLATE=en_NZ.utf8
>>>>>   [5] LC_MONETARY=en_NZ.utf8    LC_MESSAGES=en_NZ.utf8
>>>>>   [7] LC_PAPER=en_NZ.utf8       LC_NAME=C
>>>>>   [9] LC_ADDRESS=C              LC_TELEPHONE=C
>>>>> [11] LC_MEASUREMENT=en_NZ.utf8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C
>>>>>
>>>>> attached base packages:
>>>>> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
>>>>>
>>>>> other attached packages:
>>>>> [1] spatstat_1.40-0.064 misc_0.0-16
>>>>>
>>>>> loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
>>>>>   [1] abind_1.4-0     deldir_0.1-7    goftest_1.0-2   grid_3.1.2
>>>>>   [5] lattice_0.20-29 Matrix_1.1-4    mgcv_1.8-3      nlme_3.1-118
>>>>>   [9] polyclip_1.3-1  tensor_1.5      tools_3.1.2
>>
>>
>
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