Building static HTML help pages in R 2.10.x on Windows

You don't need Rgui, you could run Rterm, which would have a smaller
footprint. It's not very hard to start it and minimize it, but if you
want it running invisibly, you'll need to figure out how to hide the icon.

This works. Not entirely invisible but not a big deal about that.
The R code run within Rterm is

options(help_type="html",help.ports=6800)
help.start()
library(audio)
wait(-1)

[couldn't find another way to hang R indefinitely in batch mode]

A disadvantage of doing this is that you won't see help relevant to your
current session, you'll see help relevant to the background task.  In
2.10.x there aren't many differences, but you'll find it more limiting
in 2.11.x and later.

Not a problem if one is not switching between different versions of R. The current version is on the path and the path will get updated (manually) after a new version is installed. Thus, the relevant help will be always displayed.

Thanks, this is a kind of solution. Now I can use bookmarks to HTML help for the favorite libraries when working in ESS - the impossibility to set those and the need to start Rgui was the big nuisance. 

I am sure the new help system will get gradually improved in the future.

Best,

Michal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michal Kulich, PhD
Dept. of Probability and Statistics
Charles University
Sokolovska 83
186 75 Praha 8
Czech Republic
Email: kulich at karlin.mff.cuni.cz