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
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/00Index.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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