From murdoch at stats.uwo.ca  Thu Jun  4 07:58:16 2009
From: murdoch at stats.uwo.ca (Duncan Murdoch)
Date: Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:58:16 -0700
Subject: [Rd] proposed changes to RSiteSearch
In-Reply-To: <4A26ED1D.1020407@prodsyse.com>
References: <39B6DDB9048D0F4DAD42CB26AAFF0AFA07381973@usctmx1106.merck.com>	<20090507141812.GB25422@psych.upenn.edu>	<4A031A22.7080702@stats.uwo.ca>	<39B6DDB9048D0F4DAD42CB26AAFF0AFA073C46FD@usctmx1106.merck.com>	<20090507180930.GA1619@psych.upenn.edu>	<39B6DDB9048D0F4DAD42CB26AAFF0AFA073C4758@usctmx1106.merck.com>	<4A032E6F.8010001@dbmail.com>	<20090507192632.GA4723@psych.upenn.edu>	<39B6DDB9048D0F4DAD42CB26AAFF0AFA073C4844@usctmx1106.merck.com>
	<4A26ED1D.1020407@prodsyse.com>
Message-ID: <4A276278.3050404@stats.uwo.ca>

spencerg wrote:
> Hello All: 
>
>
>       What do you think of adding a function "RSiteSeach" to the package 
> of that name, masking the "RSiteSearch" function in "utils", trapping 
> any call RSiteSearch('searchstring', 'function') to the current 
> RSiteSearch.function and passing all others to "utils:::RSiteSearch"?  
> This was suggested by a referee to a manuscript on this new capability 
> submitted to "R Journal".  The current version of this manuscript is 
> available via "system.file('doc', 'RSiteSearch.pdf', 
> package='RSiteSearch')" if you have the "RSiteSearch" package installed. 
>   
I suppose this depends on your long term plans for the function and 
package.  If you think it should eventually replace the utils function, 
then it makes sense to use the same name:  users won't get used to a new 
name in the meantime.  But if you think it will diverge from that 
function, then you might as well pick a separate name now.

I disagree with Gabor about this being heavy handed, at least while it 
is the only significant export in the package.  If people don't want it, 
don't attach the package.

Duncan Murdoch
>
>       Thanks,
>       Best Wishes,
>       Spencer
>
>
> Liaw, Andy wrote:
>   
>>  I agree!  Recall, though, I had added the RSiteSearch() functionality
>> to the Rgui under Windows (Help / search.r-project.org...), so if
>> RSiteSearch() is taken out, this need to go, too.
>>
>> Best,
>> Andy
>>
>> From: Jonathan Baron
>>   
>>     
>>> There is something to be said for taking all of these functions,
>>> including the original RSiteSearch, out of utils and putting them in
>>> the new RSiteSearch package.  These are the sorts of things that will
>>> get revised frequently, and this way (I think) we won't have to bother
>>> whoever takes care of utils, which is part of the regular R
>>> distribution.
>>>
>>> I'm adding Spencer Graves to the cc list.  Maybe he is interested in
>>> doing this.
>>>
>>> Jon
>>>
>>> On 05/07/09 20:54, Romain Francois wrote:
>>>     
>>>       
>>>> We could have a few functions similar to RSiteSearch or 
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>> gmaneSearch I 
>>>     
>>>       
>>>> just posted and then cook a summary html page with R ...
>>>>
>>>> Here is a function that grabs relevant groups from gmane:
>>>>
>>>> gmaneGroups <- function( prefix = "gmane.comp.lang.r." ){
>>>>     url <- URLencode( sprintf( 
>>>> "http://dir.gmane.org/index.php?prefix=%s", prefix) )
>>>>     txt <- grep( '^<tr.*<td align=right.*<a', readLines( 
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>> url ), value = 
>>>     
>>>       
>>>> TRUE )
>>>>    
>>>>     rx <- '^.*?<a href="(.*?)">(.*?)</a>.*<td>(.*?)</td>.*$'
>>>>     out <- data.frame(
>>>>         url = gsub( rx, "\\1", txt ),
>>>>         group = gsub( rx, "\\2", txt ),
>>>>         description = gsub( rx, "\\3", txt ),
>>>>         stringsAsFactors = FALSE
>>>>         )
>>>>     out$group <- sub( "...", ".*", out$group, fixed = TRUE )
>>>>     out
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> I'll clean this up and write a man page if there is 
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>> interest in adding 
>>>     
>>>       
>>>> this to R, but this might be more appropriate in a package, 
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>> for example: 
>>>     
>>>       
>>>> http://r-forge.r-project.org/projects/rsitesearch/
>>>>
>>>> Romain
>>>>
>>>> Liaw, Andy wrote:
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>>>> From: Jonathan Baron
>>>>>   
>>>>>         
>>>>>           
>>>>>> On 05/07/09 13:48, Liaw, Andy wrote:
>>>>>>     
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>>>>>> From: Duncan Murdoch 
>>>>>>>       
>>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>               
>>>>>>>> I'll incorporate the changes if you like
>>>>>>>>         
>>>>>>>>               
>>>>>>>>                 
>>>>>> Yes.  Please do.  I understand that it won't take effect 
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>> for a while.
>>>     
>>>       
>>>>>> When it does, I'll change my site.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>   What do you think 
>>>>>>     
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>> of the idea 
>>>>>>>> of adding a gmane (or other archive) search to your results 
>>>>>>>> page?  Then 
>>>>>>>> if someone doesn't like what the man pages show, you can 
>>>>>>>>         
>>>>>>>>               
>>>>>>>>                 
>>>>>> send them 
>>>>>>     
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>> somewhere else, rather than leaving them to find out the 
>>>>>>>> other resources 
>>>>>>>> themselves.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> gmane has sample code for this on their search page 
>>>>>>>> search.gmane.org, so 
>>>>>>>> it looks reasonably easy.  I'd suggest following their 
>>>>>>>>         
>>>>>>>>               
>>>>>>>>                 
>>>>>> last example, 
>>>>>>     
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>> with a drop-down box to select mailing lists, with 
>>>>>>>> comp.lang.r.* as an 
>>>>>>>> option for "all lists".
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Duncan Murdoch
>>>>>>>>         
>>>>>>>>               
>>>>>>>>                 
>>>>>> Good idea.  I will do this.  But there are also two 
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>> other good search
>>>     
>>>       
>>>>>> engines.  Maybe I'll add all three search alternatives.  
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>> But then,
>>>     
>>>       
>>>>>> according to Sheena Iyengar, people won't choose any!  Hmm.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>     
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>>>>>> Actually, I was thinking about a possible RHelpSearch() in 
>>>>>>>       
>>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>               
>>>>>> addition, if
>>>>>>     
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>>>>>> Jon is no longer going to include the R-help archive in the 
>>>>>>>       
>>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>               
>>>>>> search.  I
>>>>>>     
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>>>>>> used the current RSiteSearch() a lot more for searching 
>>>>>>>       
>>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>               
>>>>>> R-help archive
>>>>>>     
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>>>>>> than functions in packages.  Ideas?  comments?
>>>>>>>       
>>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>               
>>>>>> This is OK with me, but I don't want to do it.  I guess it would
>>>>>> search gmane.  MarkMail is also pretty good, as is
>>>>>> http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/ All these are much better than
>>>>>> Namazu for searching the R-help list.
>>>>>>     
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>>>> Sorry I didn't make it clear:  I meant something like the 
>>>>>         
>>>>>           
>>> gmaneSearcg()
>>>     
>>>       
>>>>> that Romain posted, not hitting your site.
>>>>>
>>>>> Best,
>>>>> Andy
>>>>>  
>>>>>   
>>>>>         
>>>>>           
>>>>>> Jon
>>>>>>     
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>>> -- 
>>>> Romain Francois
>>>> Independent R Consultant
>>>> +33(0) 6 28 91 30 30
>>>> http://romainfrancois.blog.free.fr
>>>>
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>> -- 
>>> Jonathan Baron, Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
>>> Home page: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~baron
>>> Editor: Judgment and Decision Making (http://journal.sjdm.org)
>>>
>>>     
>>>       
>> Notice:  This e-mail message, together with any attach...{{dropped:15}}
>>     
>
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>



[Rd] proposed changes to RSiteSearch
Duncan Murdoch