Possible solution for Mozilla/help.start() search problems
ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk wrote:
Marc, I think that is the clue. I copied the Netscape installation of the Java plugins into my Moz 1.2b installation. For 1.1 I let Mozilla download Java support. The first works with R, the second did not. Looks like _adding_ Java support to Mozilla is not setup correctly. Thanks for your patience in looking into this. Brian
Professor Ripley, Glad to be of help and thank you for your kind comments. In my review of the Sun and Mozilla sites, there appear to be common installation/update design issues that impact the proper functioning of the Java plugins and therefore the applets. There are many posts in Bugzilla, which lead me to think that a resolution to this may require a level of standardization and cooperation between the involved parties. There is a definite "chicken and egg" disposition that comes through in some of the posts. One can reasonably argue however, that the burden would be on the browser folks, since Java is meant to be platform/application independent. If a browser module/plugin is required for a particular page, the browser should search for it and if not installed, request that it be installed and update it's links accordingly for subsequent use. It is this process that seems to escape Mozilla at present. Of course, having the Java plugins themselves in a standardized (ie. non-version specific) location would be of immense help as well and save search time. Near term, it may be appropriate to consider adding a note in ?help.start, the R FAQ and/or perhaps on .../doc/html/search/SearchEngine.html to refer folks to the release notes/FAQ for their platform/browser combination as to any issues relevant to the proper functioning of the Java plugins and therefore the R search applet. Given the plethora of combinations of OSs and browsers, it may be problematic to provide specific instructions that would be relevant to any particular R user. Though, it may be reasonable that Mozilla and its Gecko based derivatives are sufficiently prevalent within the R Community that providing detailed instructions in that case would be appropriate. I would defer to others on that. Best regards, Marc Schwartz -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- r-help mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe" (in the "body", not the subject !) To: r-help-request at stat.math.ethz.ch _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._