[R-SIG-Mac] R.app help viewer blank

[David Winsemius]

> On Sep 19, 2017, at 10:23 AM, Ben Tupper <btupper at bigelow.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I just updated to R 3.4.1 [R.app GUI 1.70 (7375) x86_64-apple-darwin15.6.0] from http://mirror.its.dal.ca/cran/ but have encountered a puzzler.  When I lunch the help viewer like this...
> 
> ?data.frame 
> 
> the viewer launches but the page content is blank.  I have also tried he search box in the help viewer as well as the menu selection 'Help > R Help' with the same result.  I have restarted both R.app and the computer without joy. The startup message and output of sessionInfo() are pasted in below.
> 
> I can get help successfully from a R session in Terminal.app.  I poked around in the list archives but don't see anything recent on this issue.  
> 
> What should I do to enable the help viewer?


What's in your startup files?

Have you deleted or moved aside any .Rprofile and .Rdata files?

I think you would also look at:

getOption("help_type")

Looking at other options settings I see a reference to startDynamicHelp so perhaps try:

tools:::startDynamicHelp(start = TRUE)

-- 
David.

> 
> Thanks!
> Ben
> 
> 
> R version 3.4.1 (2017-06-30) -- "Single Candle"
> Copyright (C) 2017 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
> Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin15.6.0 (64-bit)
> 
> R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
> You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
> Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.
> 
>  Natural language support but running in an English locale
> 
> R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
> Type 'contributors()' for more information and
> 'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.
> 
> Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or
> 'help.start()' for an HTML browser interface to help.
> Type 'q()' to quit R.
> 
> [R.app GUI 1.70 (7375) x86_64-apple-darwin15.6.0]
> 
>> ?data.frame
> starting httpd help server ... done
> 
>> sessionInfo()
> R version 3.4.1 (2017-06-30)
> Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin15.6.0 (64-bit)
> Running under: OS X El Capitan 10.11.6
> 
> Matrix products: default
> BLAS: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.4/Resources/lib/libRblas.0.dylib
> LAPACK: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.4/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib
> 
> locale:
> [1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8
> 
> attached base packages:
> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base     
> 
> loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
> [1] compiler_3.4.1 tools_3.4.1 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ben Tupper
> Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
> 60 Bigelow Drive, P.O. Box 380
> East Boothbay, Maine 04544
> http://www.bigelow.org
> 
> Ecocast Reports: http://seascapemodeling.org/ecocast.html
> Tick Reports: https://report.bigelow.org/tick/
> Jellyfish Reports: https://jellyfish.bigelow.org/jellyfish/
> 
> _______________________________________________
> R-SIG-Mac mailing list
> R-SIG-Mac at r-project.org
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac

David Winsemius
Alameda, CA, USA

'Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.'   -Gehm's Corollary to Clarke's Third Law