R help - Jun 2003 - help.start

Dear R experts,

I would greatly appreciate your help with R's hypertext online
documentation, which I can pass on to our system manager.  We are
running version 1.7 on sparc-sun-solaris2.9 using netscape7 browser
for displaying the help.  The system is working, but there are a few
frustrating details that I hope might be fixed.

Here are three problems we are having:

1.  When the R session is terminated, the netscape7 session that was
initiated by help.start is still active.  However, it no longer
provides the R help.  Moreover, help.start in a new R session trys to
initiate a new netscape7 session, causing R-unrelated conflicts.  Is
there a way to get help.start to use the existing netscape7 session?

2.  When searching using the help system's search engine, there is no
problem following links forward.  But when returning to the list
produced by the search, links are no longer active, so the search has
to be repeated.  Is there any way to fix it so that links remain
active?

3.  When using browseEnv I get the same problem as described in item 1
above:  a new netscape7 session is started.  To avoid R-unrelated
problems, I have had to shut down the existing netscape7 session, so
that browseEnv, can start a new one.  Is there a way to get browseEnv
to use the existing netscape7 session?


Thanks,

Carlisle

platform sparc-sun-solaris2.9
arch     sparc               
os       solaris2.9          
system   sparc, solaris2.9   
status                       
major    1                   
minor    7.0                 
year     2003                
month    04                  
day      16                  
language R                   

-- 

William Carlisle Thacker                            
                                                    
Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory
4301 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, Florida 33149 USA
Office: (305) 361-4323           Fax: (305) 361-4392

"Too many have dispensed with generosity 
     in order to practice charity."     Albert Camus

On Tue, 17 Jun 2003, W. C. Thacker wrote:
> Dear R experts,
> 
> I would greatly appreciate your help with R's hypertext online
> documentation, which I can pass on to our system manager.  We are
> running version 1.7 on sparc-sun-solaris2.9 using netscape7 browser
> for displaying the help.  The system is working, but there are a few
> frustrating details that I hope might be fixed.
So do we: take it up with Netscape!  They keep on breaking things that 
once worked: see the comments in ?browseURL, for example.

However, all my installations are under the name `netscape'.  It looks
like someone has renamed yours to `netscape7', in which case you will have
a different behaviour.  See the R function browseURL and its
documentation.
 
> Here are three problems we are having:
> 
> 1.  When the R session is terminated, the netscape7 session that was
> initiated by help.start is still active.  However, it no longer
> provides the R help.  Moreover, help.start in a new R session trys to
> initiate a new netscape7 session, causing R-unrelated conflicts.  Is
> there a way to get help.start to use the existing netscape7 session?
That's not what is supposed to happen, assuming you are using R and 
Netscape on the same machine, nor is it what I get.
> 2.  When searching using the help system's search engine, there is no
> problem following links forward.  But when returning to the list
> produced by the search, links are no longer active, so the search has
> to be repeated.  Is there any way to fix it so that links remain
> active?
It's a known problem with Mozilla-based browsers.  Try opening the forward 
link in a new tab or window.
> 3.  When using browseEnv I get the same problem as described in item 1
> above:  a new netscape7 session is started.  To avoid R-unrelated
> problems, I have had to shut down the existing netscape7 session, so
> that browseEnv, can start a new one.  Is there a way to get browseEnv
> to use the existing netscape7 session?
Well, browseEnv is *very* experimental and its HTML version may well not 
be continued, but it uses the same mechanism as help.start.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at 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