[R-SIG-Mac] ?if

[Rob J Goedman]

Not sure how to improve this in the short run. Maybe Tiger's Spotlight? 
But I haven't seen
that yet, only read about it.

I have copied Tom Short on this email. I believe his reference card is 
tremendous
( http://www.rpad.org/Rpad/R-refcard.pdf ) and maybe a note or example 
could be
added to the help section.

It almost seems to me it would be more consistent to always suggest 
using the "..." version
for getting help.

Rob

On Feb 12, 2005, at 7:09 PM, Dr. John R. Vokey wrote:

> I am trying to introduce a class of senior undergraduates to the 
> values and advantages of R for their statistical needs.  
> Unfortunately, little (and inconsequential) inconsistencies such as 
> these do little to improve their confidence in the application.  It is 
> not that I needed help on the topics, but my students may, and when 
> the two tools they know how to use, ? and apropos(), fail, I get 
> panicked e-mails...  I just thought the list would want to know.
>
> -John
>
>
> On 12-Feb-05, at 7:47 PM, Rob J Goedman wrote:
>
>> Thanks Byron.
>>
>> You're right. In fact ?"if" works fine as well.
>>
>> You do have the November version of R.app. The R.app on Simon's site 
>> will give you a faster
>> response if it can't find help on a topic.
>>
>> Rob
>>
>> On Feb 12, 2005, at 5:04 PM, Dr. John R. Vokey wrote:
>>
>>> help(if) (or other control control structures aside from if) gives 
>>> the same non-result, unless quoted (as noted).  A related error 
>>> occurs with apropos(if)---it returns a syntax error.
>>>
>>> The version is: This version:
>>> 	Version 1.01
>>>
>>> Requires:
>>> 	R  2.0.1 (2004-11-15)
>>> 	Framework Version
>>>
>>>
>>> On 12-Feb-05, at 5:40 PM, Byron Ellis wrote:
>>>
>>>> Actually there is help for control structures, help("if") works 
>>>> just fine. The problem is ? is that R's parser treats ? as an 
>>>> operator with unary and binary forms when, in fact, its not really 
>>>> an operator. ?if(TRUE) TRUE (any valid IF construct) will also give 
>>>> the help for 'if'. This is true for all platforms and probably has 
>>>> something to do with the fact that while "if" is bound directly to 
>>>> a primitive ( "if"(runif(1) < 0.5,TRUE,FALSE) is equivalent to 
>>>> if(runif(1) < 0.5) TRUE else FALSE) , the if bareword gets special 
>>>> handling in the parser.
>>>>
>>>> On Feb 12, 2005, at 4:33 PM, Rob J Goedman wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> John,
>>>>>
>>>>> Just to make sure, which configuration are you using?
>>>>>
>>>>> Assuming the GUI (otherwise you would see a "+" instead of the ">" 
>>>>> prompt), which version of
>>>>> the R.app are you using? The creation date listed in Finder will 
>>>>> do.
>>>>>
>>>>> I think you noticed 2 issues. Right now, there is no ? help for 
>>>>> control structures. You have to go
>>>>> to the language reference manual. Secondly, newer versions of 
>>>>> R.app (just the GUI part, as
>>>>> released by Simon on http://www.rosuda.org/R/nightly/ ) will tell 
>>>>> you if there is no help for
>>>>> the requested topic.
>>>>>
>>>>> Hope this helps,
>>>>> Rob
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Feb 12, 2005, at 1:22 PM, Dr. John R. Vokey wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> ? followed by any of the condition statements (or help() 
>>>>>> containing the condition statement)  does nothing (i.e., the help 
>>>>>> window fails to open), but the line is parsed in that the prompt 
>>>>>> `>' is returned.  Is this a parsing error in the help function, 
>>>>>> or (more likely) have I missed some deep R construct?
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> John
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> John R. Vokey, PhD
>>>>>> Professor
>>>>>> B.E.R.G. - Behaviour and Evolution Research Group
>>>>>> Micro-Cognition Laboratory
>>>>>> Department of Psychology & Neuroscience
>>>>>> University of Lethbridge
>>>>>> Lethbridge, Alberta T1K 3M4
>>>>>> CANADA
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> R-SIG-Mac mailing list
>>>>>> R-SIG-Mac at stat.math.ethz.ch
>>>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> R-SIG-Mac mailing list
>>>>> R-SIG-Mac at stat.math.ethz.ch
>>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac
>>>>>
>>>> ---
>>>> Byron Ellis (ellis at stat.harvard.edu)
>>>> "Oook" -- The Librarian
>>>>
>>>>
>>> --
>>> John R. Vokey, PhD
>>> Professor
>>> B.E.R.G. - Behaviour and Evolution Research Group
>>> Micro-Cognition Laboratory
>>> Department of Psychology & Neuroscience
>>> University of Lethbridge
>>> Lethbridge, Alberta T1K 3M4
>>> CANADA
>>>
>>
>>
>