R help - Nov 2001 - help.start() works with Mozilla, but not with ESS

In a recent post, I reported that help.start worked with Mozilla,
although it had not worked before.  I now have discovered the
difference.  I'm using RH Linux 7.1 and Mozilla 0.9.5 and R
1.3.1.

When I tried it before, I had use ESS to start R.  If I run R
without ESS, help.start() will start the browser (Mozilla), but
help(apply), for example, will produce help in ESS but not in the
browser.  If I say

help(apply,htmlhelp=T)

then I do get help in the browser.  If I say help(x) or ?x
(knowing that x does not exist), I get an error message telling
me that htmlhelp is FALSE.  So ESS is somehow setting htmlhelp to
FALSE, although I cannot figure out where that is happening from
looking at the code for the help function.

I have tried defining a new function
h(x) <- function(x) {help(x,htmlhelp=T)}
but this does not work at all.  It thinks that "x" is what I want
help about.

I haven't looked yet at the code for ESS.  I'm hoping that
someone can suggest a workaround.  The browser is really much
better than ESS's way of displaying help.  (But not enough better
for me to give up ESS.)

Jon Baron
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
r-help mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html
Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe"
(in the "body", not the subject !)  To: r-help-request at
stat.math.ethz.ch
_._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._

>>>>> "JB" == Jonathan Baron <baron at
cattell.psych.upenn.edu> writes:

    JB> I haven't looked yet at the code for ESS.  I'm hoping that
    JB> someone can suggest a workaround.  The browser is really much
    JB> better than ESS's way of displaying help.  (But not enough
    JB> better for me to give up ESS.)

This is actually on purpose.  We grab all help requests and work from
there.  So what does the WWW browser do better?  (you'll have to tell
me, I try to stay away from 'em :-).

best,
-tony

-- 
A.J. Rossini				Rsrch. Asst. Prof. of Biostatistics
U. of Washington Biostatistics		rossini at u.washington.edu	
FHCRC/SCHARP/HIV Vaccine Trials Net	rossini at scharp.org
-------------- http://software.biostat.washington.edu/ --------------
FHCRC: M-W: 206-667-7025 (fax=4812)|Voicemail is pretty sketchy/use Email
UW:   T-Th: 206-543-1044 (fax=3286)|Change last 4 digits of phone to FAX
Rosen: (Mullins' Lab) Fridays, and I'm unreachable except by email.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
r-help mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html
Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe"
(in the "body", not the subject !)  To: r-help-request at
stat.math.ethz.ch
_._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._

>From rossini at blindglobe.net Wed Nov 14 19:50:05 2001
>
>>>>>> "JB" == Jonathan Baron <baron at
cattell.psych.upenn.edu> writes:
>
>    JB> I haven't looked yet at the code for ESS.  I'm hoping
that
>    JB> someone can suggest a workaround.  The browser is really much
>    JB> better than ESS's way of displaying help.  (But not enough
>    JB> better for me to give up ESS.)
>
>This is actually on purpose.  We grab all help requests and work from
>there.  So what does the WWW browser do better?  (you'll have to tell
1. It allows you to go to related topics by clicking links.  This
is VERY convenient and important.

2 (less important).  It opens in a separate window so that you
can use alt-tab or something like that rather than having it
obscure half your R work space on the screen.

Jon
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
r-help mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html
Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe"
(in the "body", not the subject !)  To: r-help-request at
stat.math.ethz.ch
_._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._