[R-SIG-Mac] Blank help window

[Marc Schwartz]

Hi, 

I am on a MBP with Mojave (10.14) and do not observe this issue in R.app, which I tested, but don't otherwise use, as I use Emacs/ESS and I don't have any issues there either.

It is not clear to me if the use of the Migration Assistant and/or Brew are germane or simply red herrings, or if either one are common to what Ben is experiencing.

That being said, my recommendation would be to completely remove your R installation. If you used the CRAN binary, it should be in:
  
  /Library/Frameworks/R.framework

I would delete the entire R folder tree from R.framework on down.

I would also delete R.app from \Applications, since that seems to be at least associated with the issue, if not an actual cause.

Once you have done the above, re-install R using the correct CRAN binary as a new, clean install.

After re-installing R, then re-install XQuartz from https://www.xquartz.org <https://www.xquartz.org/>. In theory, that should be unrelated to this issue, I believe, but it should be re-installed after installing/re-installing R in either case.

After the above, then try using help in R.app again and see what happens.

Regards,

Marc Schwartz

  

> On Oct 17, 2018, at 1:48 PM, zListserv <zlistserv using gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Many thanks for your suggestions.  Not sure whether Ben’s issue is the same as mine.  Ben has problems with ?data.frame.  My issue is a blank help window when typing ?mean (or any other function).
> 
> Peter suggested checking capabilities().  They are all TRUE.
> 
> You both suggested checking configuration files.  Removing .Rprofile, .Rdata, and .Rapp.history made no difference.
> 
> Simon suggested:
> 
>> On 2018-10 -17, at 08:57, Simon Urbanek <simon.urbanek using r-project.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Few things to try:
>> 
>> - do you see anything in the error console?
> 
> Nothing noticeable in the error console, though I’m inexpert at reading it.
>> 
>> - remove (rename) any and all customization files like ~/.Rprofle ~/.RData etc.
> 
> No effect
> 
>> 
>> - try running R from the console and starting the html help by hand to see if it works at all:
>> tools::startDynamicHelp()
>> help.start(browser="/usr/bin/open”)
>> 
> 
> Help works when running R from console
> 
>> - if that works try the same from the R.app gui *before* using help:
>> help.start(browser="/usr/bin/open”)
> 
> No effect in R (except it opens my default browser).
> 
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Simon
>> 
>> 
>>> On Oct 16, 2018, at 7:11 PM, zListserv <zlistserv using gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I recently migrated to a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018) using the Migration Assistant.  Everything went well, though there are always a few things that don't transfer such as applications installed by Brew which I installed manually.
>>> 
>>> An issue with R arose I can't solve.  The help systen opens with a blank window.
>>> 
>>> Help works when I run R from the terminal so I know the files are installed.  Help works fine on the Macintosh I used a the source for the migration so it isn't a problem I inherited.  Re-installing R (see sessionInfo below) didn't solve the problem.
>>> 
>>> Anyone have any suggestions how I can get help to work?
>>> 
>>> R version 3.5.1 (2018-07-02)
>>> Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin15.6.0 (64-bit)
>>> Running under: macOS High Sierra 10.13.6
>>> 
>>> Matrix products: default
>>> BLAS: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.5/Resources/lib/libRblas.0.dylib
>>> LAPACK: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.5/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  
>>> [7] base     
>>> 
>>> other attached packages:
>>> [1] HANDLS_0.34 zUtil_0.121
>>> 
>>> loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
>>> [1] Rcpp_0.12.17    lattice_0.20-35 digest_0.6.15   MASS_7.3-50    
>>> [5] chron_2.3-52    grid_3.5.1      plyr_1.8.4      xtable_1.8-2   
>>> [9] DBI_1.0.0       RSQLite_2.1.1   sqldf_0.4-11    blob_1.1.1     
>>> [13] sp_1.3-1        gsubfn_0.7      proto_1.0.0     tools_3.5.1    
>>> [17] Matching_4.9-3  bit64_0.9-7     foreign_0.8-70  bit_1.1-14     
>>> [21] compiler_3.5.1  maptools_0.9-2  memoise_1.1.0  


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