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Running R from a read-only CD

7 messages · Charles Annis, P.E., Duncan Murdoch, Gavin Simpson

Original
Charles Annis, P.E.
# 
Dear R-helpers:

I created a folder containing R on a read-only CD and use it by having the
R-icon, located on the Windows desktop, point to the CD 
(R-2.8.1\bin\Rgui.exe) for the "Target," and to a Windows Desktop folder for
"Start in."

This works nicely EXCEPT that the R help() function cannot display anything,
and presents a screen message saying "This program cannot display webpage."
This is especially frustrating because on the left of what would be the help
window is the exhaustive list of all the functions for which R can provide
help (but can't display anything).

Can anyone provide guidance?

Here is the obligatory session information:
....................
R version 2.8.1 (2008-12-22) 
i386-pc-mingw32 

locale:
LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252;LC_CTYPE=English_United
States.1252;LC_MONETARY=English_United
States.1252;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=English_United States.1252

attached base packages:
[1] splines   tcltk     stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets
methods   base     

other attached packages:
[1] mh1823_2.5.4.1     survival_2.35-3    RColorBrewer_1.0-2 RODBC_1.2-5
....................

Thanks!


Charles Annis, P.E.

Charles.Annis at StatisticalEngineering.com
phone: 561-352-9699
eFax:? 614-455-3265
http://www.StatisticalEngineering.com
?
Duncan Murdoch
#
On 25/05/2009 4:40 PM, Charles Annis, P.E. wrote:
This sounds like a Windows security feature, because .CHM is a risky 
format.  There's a page here

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896054

that tells you how to turn it off.  Alternatively, you can choose one of 
the other help formats in R besides CHM help.

Duncan Murdoch
Charles Annis, P.E.
# 
After reading your suggested page, it does appear that the problem is a
security feature that I will have to live with since the CDs will be running
on borrowed computers.

BUT, if the same R-folder is loaded from a USB Flash Drive, rather than a
CD, the help files work just fine.  So perhaps there is another way.

Any other ideas?

Charles Annis, P.E.

Charles.Annis at StatisticalEngineering.com
phone: 561-352-9699
eFax:  614-455-3265
http://www.StatisticalEngineering.com
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Duncan Murdoch [mailto:murdoch at stats.uwo.ca] 
Sent: Monday, May 25, 2009 4:57 PM
To: Charles.Annis at StatisticalEngineering.com
Cc: r-help at r-project.org
Subject: Re: [R] Running R from a read-only CD
On 25/05/2009 4:40 PM, Charles Annis, P.E. wrote:
for
anything,
webpage."
help
This sounds like a Windows security feature, because .CHM is a risky 
format.  There's a page here

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896054

that tells you how to turn it off.  Alternatively, you can choose one of 
the other help formats in R besides CHM help.

Duncan Murdoch
Duncan Murdoch
#
On 25/05/2009 5:18 PM, Charles Annis, P.E. wrote:
Don't use CHM help.

Duncan Murdoch
Charles Annis, P.E.
# 
I'm not sure how not to use chm help, since that's the only way I've ever
done things.

But why would things work well from a USB Flash Drive and not for a CD when
the folders are identical?  (The CD was burned from the image on the Flash
Drive.)



Charles Annis, P.E.

Charles.Annis at StatisticalEngineering.com
phone: 561-352-9699
eFax:  614-455-3265
http://www.StatisticalEngineering.com
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Duncan Murdoch [mailto:murdoch at stats.uwo.ca] 
Sent: Monday, May 25, 2009 5:23 PM
To: Charles.Annis at StatisticalEngineering.com
Cc: r-help at r-project.org
Subject: Re: [R] Running R from a read-only CD
On 25/05/2009 5:18 PM, Charles Annis, P.E. wrote:
running
Don't use CHM help.

Duncan Murdoch
the
provide
Duncan Murdoch
#
On 25/05/2009 5:36 PM, Charles Annis, P.E. wrote:
That's a question for Microsoft support.  It's their help system...

To use HTML help instead, install R with that option, or change the 
options in your R_HOME/etc/Rprofile.site file to something like this:

# to prefer Compiled HTML help
# options(chmhelp=TRUE)

# to prefer HTML help
   options(htmlhelp=TRUE)

Duncan Murdoch
Gavin Simpson
#
On Mon, 2009-05-25 at 17:36 -0400, Charles Annis, P.E. wrote:
Charles,

I don't use Windows routinely, but do have to use it in our teaching
computer clusters. There the system is locked down and users don't have
write permissions to the library location and updating the help often
occurs only with warnings. Then we get the same error you are seeing. We
can, however, read chm help for base or stats or what-have-you but not
packages we installed or updated during a session.

[I know our computer people could configure all this so it worked
better, but it took me best part of 5 years to get them to install R; so
I'm thankful just for that!]

So, is this a permissions issue? - the CD is read-only and the flash
drive I presume is read/write? If you alter the folder on the flash
drive to be read-only, do you get the same end result? That might
explain the different results.

G