[R-pkg-devel] Rd files: using \link[pkg]{foo} when file names differ between OSs

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 16/04/2018 11:35 AM, Ramon Diaz-Uriarte wrote:
> Dear All,
> 
> Two recent threads in the bioconductor devel mailing list
> (https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/bioc-devel/2018-April/013156.html and
> https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/bioc-devel/2018-April/013259.html) are
> related to packages that have different names of html files in different
> operating systems.
> 
> For example, parallel has a file called mclapply in Linux. So using, from
> the Rd file of another package, \link[parallel]{mclapply} works fine under
> Linux, but does not under Windows, because there is no mclapply.html file
> in Windows (there is a mcdummies file).
> 
> 
> Is there any recommended way to proceed in these cases?
> 
> 
> Yes, section 2.5 of Writing R Extensions indicates that \link[pkg]{foo}
> and \link[pkg:bar]{foo} are rarely needed; so the simplest way to proceed
> would be to avoid \link[pkg]{foo} and \link[pkg:bar]{foo}. I am asking for
> the cases where, as noted in 2.5, "more than one package offers help on a
> topic".

You could make the links conditional on the OS.  For example,

#ifdef windows
See \link[parallel]{mcdummies}.
#endif
#ifdef unix
See \link[parallel]{mclapply}.
#endif

The other possibility (useful if there are major differences between the 
platforms) is to have two copies of the help file, one in man/unix, one 
in man/windows, but that doesn't seem appropriate from your description.

Duncan Murdoch
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 
> R.
> 
> --
> Ramon Diaz-Uriarte
> Department of Biochemistry, Lab B-25
> Facultad de Medicina
> Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
> Arzobispo Morcillo, 4
> 28029 Madrid
> Spain
> 
> Phone: +34-91-497-2412
> 
> Email: rdiaz02 at gmail.com
>         ramon.diaz at iib.uam.es
> 
> http://ligarto.org/rdiaz
> 
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