[R] Firefox not showing R help.

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On 01/03/2015 17:21, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
> 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?

R 3.1.3RC has been updated to work with Firefox 36.0.

>
> 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.
>
> ______________________________________________
> 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.
>


-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics, University of Oxford
1 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, UK