R devel - Jan 2004 - Error: unknown identifier {|} in tabular format {|l|c|c|c|}

I've got a package I would like to send out for testing and have noticed a
"problem" with the \tabular portion of the help "compiler"

the code for inserting vertical lines, in the tabular environment, causes
the build to choke, but not the check command.


C:\>rcmd build --binary -docs=all nlsystemfit

   \tabular{|l|c|c|c|}{
    \hline
    Method \tab Instruments \tab Objective Function \tab Covariance of
    \eqn{\theta}\cr\hline
    ...blah, blah,blah...
    3SLS \tab yes \tab \eqn{r'(S_{2SLS}^{-1} \bigotimes W)r} \tab
    \eqn{(X(diag(S)^{-1}\bigotimes W)X)^{-1}}\hline
  }

   ...yields...

  not zipping data
  installing help
 >>> Building/Updating help pages for package 'nlsystemfit'
     Formats: text html latex example
Error: unknown identifier {|} in tabular format {|l|c|c|c|}
make[1]: *** [help-nlsystemfit] Error 2
make: *** [pkg-nlsystemfit] Error 2
*** Installation of nlsystemfit failed ***

but C:\>rcmd build --binary nlsystemfit doesn't choke, but doesn't
produce
all the documents either. When I run rcmd rd2dvi.sh <package> I get the
results I expect. Does this have something to do with the html (since those
docs don't get created without the --docs=all argument) or the chm
generation process?

I'll remove the | from the formatting for now...

Thanks,
Jeff.

---
Jeff D. Hamann
Forest Informatics, Inc.
PO Box 1421
Corvallis, Oregon USA 97339-1421
(office) 541-754-1428
(cell) 541-740-5988
jeff.hamann@forestinformatics.com
www.forestinformatics.com

You appear to be writing latex, but I guess this is part of an Rd file.
Do read `Writing R Extensions' for the description of the actual 
Rd language (which does not have that format specifier}.

\hline is not part of the Rd language either, and you will need the 
two-argument form of \eqn{} for expressions like those.

Finally, it is not `build' that chokes, but `INSTALL' called by `build 
--binary'.  It is often much easier to see what is going on by calling 
INSTALL directly.

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004, Jeff D. Hamann wrote:
> I've got a package I would like to send out for testing and have
noticed a
> "problem" with the \tabular portion of the help
"compiler"
> 
> the code for inserting vertical lines, in the tabular environment, causes
> the build to choke, but not the check command.
> 
> 
> C:\>rcmd build --binary -docs=all nlsystemfit
> 
>    \tabular{|l|c|c|c|}{
>     \hline
>     Method \tab Instruments \tab Objective Function \tab Covariance of
>     \eqn{\theta}\cr\hline
>     ...blah, blah,blah...
>     3SLS \tab yes \tab \eqn{r'(S_{2SLS}^{-1} \bigotimes W)r} \tab
>     \eqn{(X(diag(S)^{-1}\bigotimes W)X)^{-1}}\hline
>   }
> 
>    ...yields...
> 
>   not zipping data
>   installing help
>  >>> Building/Updating help pages for package
'nlsystemfit'
>      Formats: text html latex example
> Error: unknown identifier {|} in tabular format {|l|c|c|c|}
> make[1]: *** [help-nlsystemfit] Error 2
> make: *** [pkg-nlsystemfit] Error 2
> *** Installation of nlsystemfit failed ***
> 
> but C:\>rcmd build --binary nlsystemfit doesn't choke, but
doesn't produce
> all the documents either. When I run rcmd rd2dvi.sh <package> I get
the
> results I expect. Does this have something to do with the html (since those
> docs don't get created without the --docs=all argument) or the chm
> generation process?
> 
> I'll remove the | from the formatting for now...
> 
> Thanks,
> Jeff.
> 
> ---
> Jeff D. Hamann
> Forest Informatics, Inc.
> PO Box 1421
> Corvallis, Oregon USA 97339-1421
> (office) 541-754-1428
> (cell) 541-740-5988
> jeff.hamann@forestinformatics.com
> www.forestinformatics.com
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> 
> 
-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595

>>>>> "Jeff" == Jeff D Hamann
<jeff.hamann@forestinformatics.com>
>>>>>     on Tue, 20 Jan 2004 00:25:39 -0800 writes:
    Jeff> I've got a package I would like to send out for
    Jeff> testing and have noticed a "problem" with the \tabular
    Jeff> portion of the help "compiler"

    Jeff> the code for inserting vertical lines, in the tabular
    Jeff> environment, causes the build to choke, but not the
    Jeff> check command.

Remember, that Rd is not LaTeX __at all_  It is format
translated to text/html/latex (and "R" for the examples).
We know that the format is severely limited and had expected to
replace it by a much more versatile XML based format  
but then realized that people would have to *write* in such a
format, most probably needing a smart editor-interface .... a
whole can of worms we didn't dare to open really.

The "Writing R Extensions" clearly says
>>   The `\tabular' command takes two arguments.  The first gives for
>> each of the columns the required alignment (`l' for
left-justification,
>> `r' for right-justification or `c' for centering.)  The second
argument
>> consists of an arbitrary number of lines separated by `\cr', and
with
>> fields separated by `\tab'.  For example:
>> 
>>        \tabular{rlll}{
>>          [,1] \tab Ozone   \tab numeric \tab Ozone (ppb)\cr
>>          [,2] \tab Solar.R \tab numeric \tab Solar R (lang)\cr
>>          [,3] \tab Wind    \tab numeric \tab Wind (mph)\cr
>>          [,4] \tab Temp    \tab numeric \tab Temperature (degrees F)\cr
>>          [,5] \tab Month   \tab numeric \tab Month (1--12)\cr
>>          [,6] \tab Day     \tab numeric \tab Day of month (1--31)
>>        }
>> 
>> There must be the same number of fields on each line as there are
>> alignments in the first argument, and they must be non-empty (but can
>> contain only spaces).

If it's true that R CMD check does not give any warnings on your

   \tabular{|l|c|c|c|}{
    \hline
    ....

then, that's a bug(let) in R CMD check (patches welcome :-)
Note that \hline is not valid as well.

Martin Maechler <maechler@stat.math.ethz.ch>
http://stat.ethz.ch/~maechler/
Seminar fuer Statistik, ETH-Zentrum  LEO C16	Leonhardstr. 27
ETH (Federal Inst. Technology)	8092 Zurich	SWITZERLAND
phone: x-41-1-632-3408		fax: ...-1228			<><