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

[Ramon Diaz-Uriarte]

Dear Duncan,

On Mon, 16-April-2018, at 17:52:10, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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

Thanks. I wasn't aware that was possible.



>
> 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.

I think the previous one is better (actually, for my specific cases right
now, I was able to solve the problem using \link{foo} since only one
packages offers help on the topic I link to).



Best,

R.


>
> 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
>> 
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-package-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
>> 


-- 
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