Peter Ruckdeschel
2003-Nov-05 21:50 UTC
[Rd] RFE: Hierarchical Sectioning in the Entry Page to Documentation for S4-Classes in Contributed Packages
Hi,
we are at that stage working on a package implementing the concept of
distributions as own S4-Classes. We are planning to submit a first
tentative
version to this audience by the end of November.
One issue we met is that when documenting our classes, the resulting
help-file that is displayed as first page [at least in html] when
searching for
help to our package works quite reasonable, but in our view looks a bit
overloaded,
not to say messy.
To our knowledge there is no standard way of avoiding this mentionned in
the FAQs and the manuals.
We would appreciate the possibility to further partition/section the
entry page of a
documentation of a package --- at best reflecting the inheritance
structure of our classes.
To be precise we would like to have the possibility to begin the entry
page with a highly
structured (in tree/graph-form?) presentation of the classes / methods
within this package
--- not at all listed in alphabetical order.
->[ for instance grouped in TeX-like sections/subsections, corresponding to
the inheritance structure of our classes, and / or one section for
each generic
function --- possibly also illustrated by an automatically placed
tree diagram
for the inheritance structure? --- ]
Only after this we would add the display style for the entry page
as it is at the moment as sort of an index.
We think that this way one would apprehend at first glance the
hierarchical structure
of the classes within this package and that this incremental view should
greatly
enhance the readability of the help files --- not only of ours.
On the other hand this sketched way of sectioning should be optional so
that any
developper may confine oneself to the existing display modi.
What do you think of this proposal? And do you think it is hard to
implement
(unfortunately we cannot offer much help in that)?
Thank you for your attention
--
Peter Ruckdeschel