R help - Jul 2006 - RSiteSearch() not in posting guide

Hi,

In a recent reply I sent to the list, my initial response was to
suggest, politely that by reading the posting guide and learning to use
the supplied tools one can often help oneself. I then went on to say
that reading the posting guide would have led you to RSiteSearch("insert
query"). Luckily I went to the posting guide to check this was there
before posting and much to my surprise that page does not once mention
this excellent facility!

In the section "Do your homework before posting:", help.search()
and ?foo are recommended, but these only work for installed, and
possibly loaded, packages. Wouldn't it be better to suggest a user try
RSiteSearch("foo") as well? This way they are far more likely to find
something relevant if that something resides on CRAN or the mailing list
archives.

Can I suggest adding another bullet with the following text to the "Do
your homework before posting:" section:

Do RSiteSearch("keyword") with different keywords (type this at the R
prompt) to search R, contributed packages and R-Help postings. To
restrict the search to functions only, use RSiteSearch("keyword",
restrict = "functions"). See ?RSiteSearch.

or shorter:

Do RSiteSearch("keyword") with different keywords (type this at the R
prompt) to search R functions, contributed packages and R-Help postings.
See ?RSiteSearch for further options and to restrict searches.

G
-- 
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
 Gavin Simpson                 [t] +44 (0)20 7679 0522
 ECRC & ENSIS, UCL Geography,  [f] +44 (0)20 7679 0565
 Pearson Building,             [e] gavin.simpsonATNOSPAMucl.ac.uk
 Gower Street, London          [w] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfagls/cv/
 London, UK. WC1E 6BT.         [w] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfagls/
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%

I think the posting guide may have been written prior to the
existence of RSiteSearch as a builtin command.

On 7/18/06, Gavin Simpson <gavin.simpson at ucl.ac.uk>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> In a recent reply I sent to the list, my initial response was to
> suggest, politely that by reading the posting guide and learning to use
> the supplied tools one can often help oneself. I then went on to say
> that reading the posting guide would have led you to
RSiteSearch("insert
> query"). Luckily I went to the posting guide to check this was there
> before posting and much to my surprise that page does not once mention
> this excellent facility!
>
> In the section "Do your homework before posting:", help.search()
> and ?foo are recommended, but these only work for installed, and
> possibly loaded, packages. Wouldn't it be better to suggest a user try
> RSiteSearch("foo") as well? This way they are far more likely to
find
> something relevant if that something resides on CRAN or the mailing list
> archives.
>
> Can I suggest adding another bullet with the following text to the "Do
> your homework before posting:" section:
>
> Do RSiteSearch("keyword") with different keywords (type this at
the R
> prompt) to search R, contributed packages and R-Help postings. To
> restrict the search to functions only, use RSiteSearch("keyword",
> restrict = "functions"). See ?RSiteSearch.
>
> or shorter:
>
> Do RSiteSearch("keyword") with different keywords (type this at
the R
> prompt) to search R functions, contributed packages and R-Help postings.
> See ?RSiteSearch for further options and to restrict searches.
>
> G
> --
> %~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
>  Gavin Simpson                 [t] +44 (0)20 7679 0522
>  ECRC & ENSIS, UCL Geography,  [f] +44 (0)20 7679 0565
>  Pearson Building,             [e] gavin.simpsonATNOSPAMucl.ac.uk
>  Gower Street, London          [w] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfagls/cv/
>  London, UK. WC1E 6BT.         [w] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfagls/
> %~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> 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.
>