help in R 2.9.x for R 2.10.x packages
On 29/01/2010 2:34 PM, Michael Friendly wrote:
[Env: Win Xp] Is there any options() setting or call to help() or help.start() that will allow me to view a help file for a package built under R 2.10.x under R 2.9.2? I'm using both R 2.9.2 and R 2.10.1, but prefer the former because the CHM help is so much easier to use. Yet, if I install a package built for R 2.10.x, I can't find *any* way to display a help file in this package. For example, after library(TeachinDemos),
> ?HWidentify
Error in print.help_files_with_topic(x) :
No text help for 'HWidentify' is available:
corresponding file is missing
In addition: Warning message:
In
print.help_files_with_topic("C:/R/R-2.9.2/library/TeachingDemos/chm/HWidentify")
:
No CHM help for 'HWidentify' in package 'TeachingDemos' is available:
the CHM file for the package is missing
So, I try
> help.start()
updating HTML package listing updating HTML search index If nothing happens, you should open 'C:\R\R-2.9.2\doc\html\index.html' yourself I can then get to file:///C:/R/R-2.9.2/library/TeachingDemos/html/00Index.html but then all the links there give Not Found, e.g., file:///C:/R/R-2.9.2/library/TeachingDemos/html/HWidentify.html and, indeed, C:\R\R-2.9.2\library\TeachingDemos\html contains only 00Index.html. All the links therein are to .html files in the same directory, so of course are wrong.
The CHM help files were built at package install time. Binary packages are images of already-installed packages, so they won't have CHM files unless installed in 2.9.x or earlier. So you "just" need to get the package source, and install it into the earlier R. Sometimes this is easy, sometimes not. Duncan Murdoch