R 2.15.2 installed as a regular user on Windows 7.
Three issues:
1. There is a start menu item for "R 2.15.2 Help" that opens a local web
page. If I click on packages, then base, then abbreviate I get
"Firefox can't find the file at
/C:/Users/rdboylan/Documents/R/R-2.15.2/library/base/html/abbreviate.html."
The page before, which did display, was
"file:///C:/Users/rdboylan/Documents/R/R-2.15.2/library/base/html/00Index.html"
(the link that fails is being tried with the same file:///C:/ start,
despite the text in the error message).
Is this a bug? Is there a way I can fix it?
2. ?'&&' produces "No documentation for ''&&'' in the specified packages
and libraries". This used to work. Is this failure expected?
Actually, I just discovered it works from the main R application. The
failure is from ESS 12.09-1 on emacs 24.2.1, both of which were the
latest as of last week.
3. Are the manuals available as info files (for use in emacs) anymore?
I notice the FAQ ("2.7 What documentation exists for R?") does not list it.
Thanks.
Help with Help on Windows
3 messages · Duncan Murdoch, Ross Boylan
On 11/01/2013 12:49 PM, Ross Boylan wrote:
R 2.15.2 installed as a regular user on Windows 7. Three issues: 1. There is a start menu item for "R 2.15.2 Help" that opens a local web page. If I click on packages, then base, then abbreviate I get "Firefox can't find the file at /C:/Users/rdboylan/Documents/R/R-2.15.2/library/base/html/abbreviate.html." The page before, which did display, was "file:///C:/Users/rdboylan/Documents/R/R-2.15.2/library/base/html/00Index.html" (the link that fails is being tried with the same file:///C:/ start, despite the text in the error message). Is this a bug? Is there a way I can fix it?
That's a bug, that start menu item should not have been installed. You
can't view the help unless R is running, because it is being generated
dynamically.
You could create a shortcut with something like
<R HOME>\bin\x64\Rterm.exe -e "{help.start(); Sys.sleep(1000)}"
as the command, and set it to display minimized; it would run for 1000
seconds before it died. I don't think this is a great solution because
it leaves that Rterm process sitting there, but maybe some variation on
this would do what you want.
I will remove the code that generates the bad Start Menu entry from the
installer.
2. ?'&&' produces "No documentation for ''&&'' in the specified packages and libraries". This used to work. Is this failure expected? Actually, I just discovered it works from the main R application. The failure is from ESS 12.09-1 on emacs 24.2.1, both of which were the latest as of last week.
This seems like a bug report to send to the ESS list.
3. Are the manuals available as info files (for use in emacs) anymore?
I notice the FAQ ("2.7 What documentation exists for R?") does not list it.
Those aren't distributed, but you could probably build them yourself if you get the source, as the originals are still in *.texi format. The Windows makefiles don't have targets for them, but if you have the tools, the Unix makefiles should give you the right incantations. Duncan Murdoch
Thanks to Duncan for all his help. I have one tip to pass on.
On 1/11/2013 10:34 AM, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
On 11/01/2013 12:49 PM, Ross Boylan wrote:
R 2.15.2 installed as a regular user on Windows 7. Three issues: 1. There is a start menu item for "R 2.15.2 Help" that opens a local web page. If I click on packages, then base, then abbreviate I get "Firefox can't find the file at /C:/Users/rdboylan/Documents/R/R-2.15.2/library/base/html/abbreviate.html." The page before, which did display, was "file:///C:/Users/rdboylan/Documents/R/R-2.15.2/library/base/html/00Index.html" (the link that fails is being tried with the same file:///C:/ start, despite the text in the error message). Is this a bug? Is there a way I can fix it?
That's a bug, that start menu item should not have been installed. You
can't view the help unless R is running, because it is being generated
dynamically.
You could create a shortcut with something like
<R HOME>\bin\x64\Rterm.exe -e "{help.start(); Sys.sleep(1000)}"
as the command, and set it to display minimized; it would run for 1000
seconds before it died. I don't think this is a great solution
because it leaves that Rterm process sitting there, but maybe some
variation on this would do what you want.
I will remove the code that generates the bad Start Menu entry from
the installer.
Running help.start() from my ESS session seems to work well. It's basically running all the time anyway. Of course, it's usually easier to to ?someFunction to get help with an individual function. Ross