(PR#2275) Re: Bug#168259: r-base-core: help.start() assumes netscape is installed

On Sat, Nov 09, 2002 at 09:17:47PM +0000, ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk wrote:

and netscape no longer allows multiple executables to run.

I just confirmed that mozilla does. E.g.
  mozilla http://bbc.com & sleep 3; mozilla -remote "openurl(http://cnn.com)"
happily switches the running session from the BBC to CNN.

That's not running multiple executables: that is remote-controlling an
existing one.  Not only that, the second command takes over any existing
mozilla on the display, even one running on a completely different machine
(e.g. a session on a remote Solaris box).  It's the last part that is
fatal to the earlier help.start/help scheme.

For me, on Linux, both Mozilla 1.1 and Netscape 7.0 refuse to allow me to
run a new copy if one is already running.  This is an issue as the
help.start/help interface tries to run a new copy if running R remotely.

They do allow multiple invocations under Windows and seem only to run one
copy.

Try mozilla http://bbc.com & sleep 20; mozilla http://cnn.com.
I get a dialog box telling me a copy is already running under my profile
and refusing to allow me to run another one.

This works for me! I get two distinct ;frames'. And "pstree -p" shows only
one main process with one child which has four other child processes.  So it
looks as if they are sharing.

[ some more snooping ]

Indeed. Once I start the 2nd one, ps show mozilla-remote as a parallel
process. This then seems to migrate into the earlier mozilla even when that
one was started in a different shell.  File->Quit also brings both frames to
an end.  mozilla-1.0.0 as in Debian testing.