[R-pkg-devel] Public URLs for help for versions of base packages

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 30/06/2023 7:57 a.m., David Hugh-Jones wrote:
> Static web pages get indexed by google.

Isn't that an argument against having static pages?  If I do a Google 
search for "R lm" I think it's better to find the current docs rather 
than dozens of obsolete versions.  It's rare that someone wants to see 
changes across versions, so doing that should take extra work.

Duncan Murdoch

> 
> David
> 
> 
> On Fri, 30 Jun 2023 at 09:55, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan using gmail.com 
> <mailto:murdoch.duncan using gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>     Why store them?  Download the source on demand, and convert it.  Seems
>     pretty simple.
> 
>     Duncan Murdoch
> 
>     On 30/06/2023 1:19 a.m., David Hugh-Jones wrote:
>      > This is for the rcheology package. I run a Shiny web app which
>     lets you
>      > examine changes to functions across R versions:
>      >
>      > https://hughjonesd.shinyapps.io/rcheology/
>     <https://hughjonesd.shinyapps.io/rcheology/>
>      >
>      > Manually storing and converting the Rd might be possible, but it
>     would be
>      > burdensome in terms of data (and my time). And if the Rd spec has
>     changed
>      > across versions, that’s another problem.
>      >
>      > More generally, shouldn’t there be publicly available versioned
>      > documentation? Python has had this for a long time.
>      >
>      > David
>      >
>      >
>      > On Fri, 30 Jun 2023 at 01:01, Jeff Newmiller
>     <jdnewmil using dcn.davis.ca.us <mailto:jdnewmil using dcn.davis.ca.us>>
>      > wrote:
>      >
>      >> Sure. On your computer. Install the old version of R and let it
>     serve the
>      >> relevant docs.
>      >>
>      >> Dunno of anyone doing this historical dive online for you
>     though. Why
>      >> would you want preformatted docs if you didn't have those old
>     versions
>      >> installed?
>      >>
>      >> On June 29, 2023 4:23:55 PM PDT, David Hugh-Jones <
>      >> davidhughjones using gmail.com <mailto:davidhughjones using gmail.com>> wrote:
>      >>> That’s useful to know. But is there anywhere with preformatted
>     HTML pages?
>      >>>
>      >>> Cheers, D
>      >>>
>      >>> On Thu, 29 Jun 2023 at 21:46, Ivan Krylov
>     <krylov.r00t using gmail.com <mailto:krylov.r00t using gmail.com>> wrote:
>      >>>
>      >>>> On Thu, 29 Jun 2023 20:22:47 +0100
>      >>>> David Hugh-Jones <davidhughjones using gmail.com
>     <mailto:davidhughjones using gmail.com>> wrote:
>      >>>>
>      >>>>> I'm looking for a source of online help for R base
>      >>>>> packages, which covers all versions (for some reasonable value of
>      >>>>> "all"). So e.g. the equivalent of `?lm` for R 4.1.0.
>      >>>>
>      >>>> These live in the R source tree, under src/library:
>      >>>> https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk/src/library/
>     <https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk/src/library/>
>      >>>>
>      >>>> For the actual releases of R, you may have to go looking at the
>      >>>> branches inside that repository, e.g., the following command:
>      >>>>
>      >>>> svn log \
>      >>>>
>      >>>>
>      >>
>     https://svn.r-project.org/R/branches/R-4-1-branch/src/library/stats/man/lm.Rd <https://svn.r-project.org/R/branches/R-4-1-branch/src/library/stats/man/lm.Rd>
>      >>>>
>      >>>> ...should tell you the history of ?lm until the latest
>     R-4.1-patched.
>      >>>>
>      >>>> Do the Git mirrors track these release branches? The branching
>     model of
>      >>>> Subversion [*] is different from the Git model, so perhaps not.
>      >>>>
>      >>>> --
>      >>>> Best regards,
>      >>>> Ivan
>      >>>>
>      >>>> [*]
>     https://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.branchmerge.using.html
>     <https://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.branchmerge.using.html>
>      >>>>
>      >>
>      >> --
>      >> Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.
>      >>
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