Wishlist: Navigate to "Index" page of help when no topic (PR#13872)
On 04/08/2009 7:33 PM, Steven McKinney wrote:
-----Original Message----- From: Duncan Murdoch [mailto:murdoch at stats.uwo.ca] Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 8:03 AM To: Steven McKinney Cc: r-devel at stat.math.ethz.ch; R-bugs at r-project.org Subject: Re: [Rd] Wishlist: Navigate to "Index" page of help when no topic specified (PR#13860) On 7/28/2009 6:30 PM, smckinney at bccrc.ca wrote:
Hi all, When I install a new package, and don't yet know any function names, I have to play the "poor man's game" to get to the standard help system "Index" page for the package:
You could complain to the package author or maintainer, who should have created a help alias with the package name so that ?survival would give you something useful. But I would guess R 2.10.x or 2.11.x will do that automatically. Duncan Murdoch
Unfortunately it happens frequently - hopefully I don't have to complain so much - I'd rather figure out code to get to the index page! When you say "I would guess R 2.10.x or 2.11.x will do that automatically" do you mean ?survival:: or some similar incantation will take me to the Index or 00Index page?
I would guess package?survival will take you to a help page that is similar to what you get now in the flat display from library(help=survival). Ideally it will have a link on it to the index page. It is possible that ?survival will work too; that may be more controversial, because for many packages (e.g. boot) an alias like that is already defined, pointing to something other than the package main page.
Do I need to propose code or is it already known how to do this within the R core group?
I doubt if code to do that would be accepted (since it will be redundant once the above changes are in place), but posting it to r-devel might help people in the meantime. You should look at the tools package, which has a number of functions that are used by R for constructing the help pages; there's probably something there that will let you construct a link to the index fairly easily. Duncan Murdoch
Best Steve McKinney
Poor Man's Game -=20 Load new package;=20 issue search() command; find position (say N) of loaded package;=20 issue objects(pos =3D N) command; get name of a random function (san newFunction);=20 issue ?newFunction command; scroll to bottom of page;=20 click on the "Index" hyperlink There are other variations, but they all involve this=20 long march to the Index page. What I'd like to be able to do is enter the command
help(package =3D "survival")
or
?survival::
and get the usual hyperlinked help page displayed (the "00Index"
page)
instead of the static "text only" display or an error message (for example, on Windows, this equates to invoking "C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-29~1.1/library/survival/chm/00Index" on Apple Mac,
"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/library/survival/html/00Inde x.ht=
ml" etc.) Details: --------------- The help() function returns an object of class "help_files_with_topic". The object consists of a character vector with several attributes. PC: Windows XP
library("survival")
foo <- help("aareg", package =3D "survival")
class(foo)
[1] "help_files_with_topic"
foo[1]
[1] "C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-29~1.1/library/survival/chm/aareg"
attributes(foo)
$call help(topic =3D "aareg", package =3D "survival") $pager [1] "internal" $topic [1] "aareg" $tried_all_packages [1] FALSE $type [1] "chm" $class [1] "help_files_with_topic"
bar <- help("", package =3D "survival")
class(bar)
[1] "help_files_with_topic"
bar[1]
[1] NA
attributes(bar)
$call help(topic =3D "", package =3D "survival") $pager [1] "internal" $topic [1] "" $tried_all_packages [1] FALSE $type [1] "chm" $class [1] "help_files_with_topic" If I alter the character vector to point to "00Index"
bar[1] <- "C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-29~1.1/library/survival/chm/00Index" bar
I see exactly what I've been attempting to achieve. Mac OS X:
foo <- help("aareg", package =3D "survival")
foo[1]
[1]
"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/library/survival/html/aareg. =
html"
attributes(foo)
$call help(topic =3D "aareg", package =3D "survival") $pager [1] "/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/pager" $topic [1] "aareg" $tried_all_packages [1] FALSE $type [1] "html" $class [1] "help_files_with_topic"
bar <- help("", package =3D "survival")
bar[1]
[1] NA
bar[1] <-
"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/library/survival/htm=
l/00Index.html"
bar
Again I see exactly what I've been after. Running R in Emacs on Mac OS X:
foo <- help(topic =3D "aareg", package =3D "survival") foo[1]
[1]
"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/library/survival/html/aareg. =
html"
attributes(foo)
$call help(topic =3D "aareg", package =3D "survival") $pager [1] "/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/pager" $topic [1] "aareg" $tried_all_packages [1] FALSE $type [1] "html" $class [1] "help_files_with_topic"
bar <- help(topic =3D "", package =3D "survival") bar[1]
[1] NA
bar[1] <-
"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/library/survival/htm=
l/00Index.html"
bar
Help for '' is shown in browser /usr/bin/open ...
Use
help("", htmlhelp =3D FALSE)
or
options(htmlhelp =3D FALSE)
to revert.
Again, what I've been trying to achieve.
When a user loads a new library and doesn't yet know any function
names,
I think
help(package =3D "newLibrary")
or
?newLibrary::
should perform the above action whenever possible instead of producing static help or an error message. The "00Index" 'object' should be available for such use whenever it exists. =20 I have not yet worked out all the coding details to make this happen, but before I do, am I missing some key point? Any reasons why this would be a Bad Idea? Steven McKinney, Ph.D. Statistician Molecular Oncology and Breast Cancer Program British Columbia Cancer Research Centre email: smckinney +at+ bccrc +dot+ ca tel: 604-675-8000 x7561 BCCRC Molecular Oncology 675 West 10th Ave, Floor 4 Vancouver B.C. V5Z 1L3 Canada
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