[R-SIG-Mac] feature request: paste and match style / open help files in external browser (R.app)

[Steve Lianoglou]

Hi Ben,

On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 7:34 PM, Ben Madin
<lists at remoteinformation.com.au> wrote:
> G'day Simon et al,
>
> On 31/03/2010, at 23:17 , Martin Batholdy wrote:
>
>> I use the help-functions a lot to look up all the different arguments of a function.
>> What I would love is if it would be possible to open help-files in a different program (like Safari).
>> So that when I type ?par (or help("par")) my default web browser pops up and shows me the help-file.
>> That would give me the opportunity to easily search the help-file via CMD+F and to quickly switch between a help-file and a script.
>
> An alternative feature option I often wished for when learning a new package would be the ability to select the text in the help window, and use the Command-Return key combination (as for the script window) to execute it (ie for the example text) instead of the copy - change window - paste - return combination... thus making stepping through example scripts much easier... but I suspect this to have hidden complexities!

While this isn't exactly what you're asking for, I'm curious if you
knew that typing, say:

R> example(lm)

at the R prompt would run the code in the example section of the lm
documentation?

No copy-switch-paste necessary :-)

-- 
Steve Lianoglou
Graduate Student: Computational Systems Biology
 | Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
 | Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Contact Info: http://cbio.mskcc.org/~lianos/contact