[R] Firefox not showing R help.

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 01/03/2015 10:13 AM, Ista Zahn wrote:
> 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

Yes, that's it.  R uses -remote if isLocal is TRUE; I had thought it
wasn't.

The -remote arg is also used for mozilla and opera; is it needed there?

Duncan Murdoch

> 
> 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
>>>
>>>
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.