On Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 9:32 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch@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.

Just an idea.

-- 
Kevin Wright

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