The help for the cygwin port of R is buggy and hides random lines of text. Consquently, I've been relying on Google, but it is often not clear how directly relevant the info is for the specific command that I'm using. For example, reshape is complicated, and has more than 1 version. Is there an online version of the help pages? I tried looking for html versions of the help pages by ferruting through the R.home() subtree. Haven't found them so far. There are package pages in subdirectories <package>/html/00Index.html, but they just contain links to html files that don't reside in my R.home() subtree. There are also subdirectories <package>/help, but they contain pages that I don't recognize (*.rds, *.rdb, *.rdx). Getting desparate here, and realizing how the web is not in any way a substituted for locally available help pages that you can be confident is right for your installation.
Hi Paul a quick search popped up these:
http://astrostatistics.psu.edu/datasets/R/html/index.html
http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/
http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Online-R-documentation-td1009656.html
Are they what you are looking for?
Collin.
On Thu, Apr 16, 2015 at 5:02 PM, paul <paul.domaskis at gmail.com>
wrote:> The help for the cygwin port of R is buggy and hides random lines of
> text. Consquently, I've been relying on Google, but it is often not
> clear how directly relevant the info is for the specific command that
> I'm using. For example, reshape is complicated, and has more than 1
> version.
>
> Is there an online version of the help pages?
>
> I tried looking for html versions of the help pages by ferruting
> through the R.home() subtree. Haven't found them so far. There are
> package pages in subdirectories <package>/html/00Index.html, but they
> just contain links to html files that don't reside in my R.home()
> subtree. There are also subdirectories <package>/help, but they
> contain pages that I don't recognize (*.rds, *.rdb, *.rdx).
>
> Getting desparate here, and realizing how the web is not in any way a
> substituted for locally available help pages that you can be confident
> is right for your installation.
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
On Fri, Apr 17, 2015 at 3:22 PM, Collin Lynch <cflynch at ncsu.edu> wrote:> Hi Paul a quick search popped up these: > > http://astrostatistics.psu.edu/datasets/R/html/index.html > http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/ > http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Online-R-documentation-td1009656.html > > Are they what you are looking for? > > Collin.I was looking for a site where I could simply punch in the command and get the "man" page without navigating & searching. But I found a way around my problem with the help in Cygwin's R port. In ~/.Rprofile, I have: options(browser="cygstart") options(help_type="html")
On 16/04/2015 5:02 PM, paul wrote:> The help for the cygwin port of R is buggy and hides random lines of > text.You've already been told not to use the Cygwin port. It's buggy in the help pages, and probably in many other respects as well. It doesn't pass the R self-tests. Don't use it. Duncan Murdoch Consquently, I've been relying on Google, but it is often not> clear how directly relevant the info is for the specific command that > I'm using. For example, reshape is complicated, and has more than 1 > version. > > Is there an online version of the help pages? > > I tried looking for html versions of the help pages by ferruting > through the R.home() subtree. Haven't found them so far. There are > package pages in subdirectories <package>/html/00Index.html, but they > just contain links to html files that don't reside in my R.home() > subtree. There are also subdirectories <package>/help, but they > contain pages that I don't recognize (*.rds, *.rdb, *.rdx). > > Getting desparate here, and realizing how the web is not in any way a > substituted for locally available help pages that you can be confident > is right for your installation. > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >
With all due respect, Duncan, I can't find the message advising against using the Cygwin port. I did find a message about the mishandling of line endings, and I've asked on the cygwin forum (as advised). As I mentioned, I'm in an environment where updates are not possible, and I'm clarifying now that this means installations are even more impossible, at least not without extensive adminstrative delay. Basically, this is what I have to work with. If anyone can suggest good ideas for the challenges as-is, that would be much appreciated. However, given your posts, I fully understand if the answer is "no". On the other hand, simply demanding a solution consisting of a course of action which is impossible at present...well, it's just impossible. Having said that, I'll just say that I've managed to exort the powers that be to install a Windows based version of R, but I have to work with what I currently have for at least a week. I should also mention that I've submitted an update to the mailing list on a workaround for the R help problem on cygwin. It might not have propagated to recipients yet. I appreciate the further info on the extent of the bugginess of the cygwin port. On Fri, Apr 17, 2015 at 9:04 PM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com> wrote:>On 16/04/2015 5:02 PM, paul wrote: >> The help for the cygwin port of R is buggy and hides random lines >> of text. > > You've already been told not to use the Cygwin port. It's buggy in > the help pages, and probably in many other respects as well. It > doesn't pass the R self-tests. Don't use it. > >> Consquently, I've been relying on Google, but it is often not >> clear how directly relevant the info is for the specific command >> that I'm using. For example, reshape is complicated, and has more >> than 1 version. >> >> Is there an online version of the help pages? >> >> I tried looking for html versions of the help pages by ferruting >> through the R.home() subtree. Haven't found them so far. There >> are package pages in subdirectories <package>/html/00Index.html, >> but they just contain links to html files that don't reside in my >> R.home() subtree. There are also subdirectories <package>/help, >> but they contain pages that I don't recognize (*.rds, *.rdb, >> *.rdx). >> >> Getting desparate here, and realizing how the web is not in any way >> a substituted for locally available help pages that you can be >> confident is right for your installation.