From maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch  Thu Jul 16 17:44:45 2009
From: maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch (Martin Maechler)
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:44:45 +0200
Subject: [Rd] Dynamic help pages
In-Reply-To: <4A5E36F1.1020206@stats.uwo.ca>
References: <4A5DDDE4.5000207@stats.uwo.ca>
	<4A5E36F1.1020206@stats.uwo.ca>
Message-ID: <19039.19181.30776.5977@lynne.math.ethz.ch>

>>>>> "DM" == Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca>
>>>>>     on Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:07:13 -0400 writes:

    DM> On 7/15/2009 9:47 AM, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
    >> I've just committed code that allows R to be built with support for 
    >> dynamic help pages using \Sexpr in Rd files.  Define USE_NEW_HELP and 
    >> the R function tools:::.convertRdfiles will be used instead of the Perl 
    >> RdConv script, supporting \Sexpr and using the new R converters.
    >> 
    >> Currently only text help has the macros evaluated when the user asks for 
    >> help; the others are rendered at install time.  Hopefully HTML rendering 
    >> will also be in place before the 2.10.x release.  I can't see how CHM 
    >> and Latex help pages would ever be dynamic. Build time evaluation of 
    >> \Sexpr macros is not yet supported.
    >> 
    >> The only man page currently containing \Sexpr is ?tools::Rd2HTML.


    DM> This message may be a little premature:  the USE_NEW_HELP setting only 
    DM> affects base packages so far.  I'll see if I can get R CMD INSTALL 
    DM> working too, but it might take a while....

    DM> Duncan Murdoch

In any case, it's great to see your work progressing in these
directions. I expect this will have great potential indeed. 
Thank you very much!

Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich



[Rd] Dynamic help pages
Martin Maechler