But that's just a problem with the current implementation. Better
indexing could make full text search of all documentation practical
instantaneous. This is one argument for a centralised documentation
web site - such indices are much easier to set up in a modern web
development environment. I could imagine this being an eventual
feature of crantastic.org, but it requires on some tool to turn Rd
files into a form more easily parsed with off-the-shelf tools (ideally
xml).
The search is a lot faster in 2.7.x, but is limited by disc speed (and
hence is relatively slow on Windows -- and I have a box which has both Linux
and Windows on, so I've tested this on identical hardware). R is a dynamic
environment which can change libraries (and their order), add or remove
packages .... The text search is pretty close to instantaneous (try it a
second time) -- the time is taken building the database for the first use.