help output paged in separate window
On 26-May-03 Jim Lemon wrote:
Well, here is a little function derived from the help browser macro I
wrote for NEdit that will fire up an xterm with less displaying the
help for a function.
Jim
helpless<-function(topic) {
topic<-substitute(topic)
sys.command<-paste("locate ",topic,sep="",collapse="")
helpfilelist<-system(sys.command,TRUE)
helpmatch<-paste("help/",topic,sep="",collapse="")
# find the R text help file(s)
helpfile<-helpfilelist[grep(helpmatch,helpfilelist)]
# assume that the shortest name matching "topic" will be the one
if(length(helpfile) > 1)
helpfile<-helpfile[which.min(nchar(helpfile))]
sys.command<-paste("xterm -e less ",helpfile,sep="",collapse="")
system(sys.command)
}
Well that's neat! I must study it and learn some of the tricks. They look useful. The only thing I have against it is that it doesn't detach from the R window, unlike tkpager which conveniently does, so it's not possible to continue working in R while reading help (leaving one as it were helpless ... ). Thanks, and best wishes, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 167 1972 Date: 26-May-03 Time: 20:03:41 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------