[R-SIG-Mac] R.app feature request

[David Winsemius]

On Dec 5, 2009, at 5:21 PM, soeren.vogel at eawag.ch wrote:

> On 05.12.2009, at 23:14, David Winsemius wrote:
>
>> It's configured by your system's default::
>>
>> > options()$browser
>> [1] "/usr/bin/open"
>>
>> You can over-ride this in your .Rprofile
>>
>> On Dec 5, 2009, at 5:00 PM, Soeren.Vogel at eawag.ch wrote:
>>
>>> Would be a nice feature if one could change the default help  
>>> browser to an external application, e.g. Safari or Firefox.
>
> Neither of these works:
>
> options(browser="/Applications/Firefox\ 2.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox")
> ?table # opens R.app internal browser
> options(browser="/Applications/Firefox\ 2.app")
> ?table # still opens R.app internal browser

My apologies. The options()$browser setting handles the application  
that is dispatched by RSiteSearch. I did not understand what your  
arguments were doing. After reading the man page for "open" I tried  
using the -a argument and it seems to work. This demonstrates a  
successful switch between Safari and Firefox for that purpose (but not  
for your request):

 > options(browser="/usr/bin/open -a /Applications/Safari.app")
 > help(str)
 > RSiteSearch("splines")
A search query has been submitted to http://search.r-project.org
The results page should open in your browser shortly
 > options(browser="/usr/bin/open -a /Applications/Firefox.app")
 > RSiteSearch("splines")
A search query has been submitted to http://search.r-project.org
The results page should open in your browser shortly

See also:
?help.start

You can browse the contents of help packages using your specified  
browser with :

 > help.start(update = TRUE, gui = "irrelevant",
+            browser = getOption("browser"), remote = NULL)
Making packages.html . done
If '/usr/bin/open -a /Applications/Firefox.app' is already running, it  
is *not* restarted, and you
     must switch to its window.
Otherwise, be patient ...

But it does not seem to affect what application handles help() requests.

-- 
David.


>
> Sören
>

David Winsemius, MD
Heritage Laboratories
West Hartford, CT