From ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk  Thu Nov  1 16:25:16 2001
From: ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk (Prof Brian Ripley)
Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 16:25:16 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: [Rd] problem with help.start() in R (PR#1156)
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.31.0111011258040.16868-100000@gannet.stats>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.31.0111011624130.6232-100000@gannet.stats>

Follow-up: netscape 6.2 (announced on Tuesday) does support -remote, so
perhaps mozilla does now / will soon.

Brian


On Thu, 1 Nov 2001, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:

> I tested Opera 5.0 under Linux (www.opera.com).  It worked with -remote
> correctly.  What I did not get to work was the search engine, but I saw no
> sign of Java support for Opera under Linux. (For Windows it is a separate
> add-on.)
>
> I've amended the documentation, but I do wonder if
> help.start(browser="foo") should set options(browser="foo").
>
> B
>
> On Wed, 31 Oct 2001, Kurt Hornik wrote:
>
> > >>>>> Dinh-Tuan Pham writes:
> >
> > > Prof Brian Ripley writes:
> > >> On Wed, 31 Oct 2001 Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr wrote:
> > >>
> > >> >        The function help.start() assume that the brower is netscape
> > >> > which is no longer the dominant brower in used. I am using now opera
> > >>
> > >> On what operating system is this?  On Unix/Linux you should be using
> > >> options(browser="opera").  On Windows/Mac you can't set the browser
> > >> anyway.
> >
> > > on Linux, actually
> >
> > >> > help.start(browser="opera"), but it is not convenience: I would like
> > >> > to be able to set the default brwsernone for all. But the real bug is
> > >> > that even after launching help.start(browser="opera"), other help
> > >> > commands, help(help), say, still send the "help page" to netscape. Here
> > >> > is what I get
> > >> >
> > >> > > help.start(browser="opera")
> > >> > If opera  is already running,   it is *not* restarted,
> > >> >  and you must switch to its window.
> > >> > Otherwise, be patient..
> > >> > > help(help)
> > >> > help() for help  is shown in browser netscape ...
> > >> > Use      help( help , htmlhelp=FALSE)
> > >> > or       options(htmlhelp = FALSE)
> > >> > to revert.
> > >> > > sh: netscape: command not found
> > >> >
> > >> > Please correct this bug.
> > >>
> > >> I don't think it is a bug in R but I have expanded the documentation.
> > >>
> > >> Please do use the bug.report() function, as critical information is
> > >> missing from this report.
> >
> > > I am sorry not having looked carefully on the documentation. But the
> > > first thing I do is to launch help.start() and be stuck with an
> > > inexistent browser. I have imagined that help.start(browser="opera")
> > > would set the browser to opera, but I am wrong and the browser must be
> > > set by options(browser="opera"), a feature which I am not aware of.
> > > Nevertheless, I find this rather confusing for a new user: if
> > > options(browser="opera") should always be used to set the browser,
> > > then the argument browser="opera" in help.start would never be needed.
> >
> > The documentation issue may be unfortunate, but there is really no point
> > unless we find browsers other than Netscape which can be controlled
> > remotely.  I have been raising this issue a couple of times, last time
> > about three months ago or so.  Mozilla then claimed to support -remote
> > as Netscape does but really did not.  Konqueror does not allow being
> > sent URLs remotely, and neither does gnome-help-browser.  Not sure about
> > Opera ... do you have more info?
> >
> > -k
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> >
>
> --
> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley@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 272860 (secr)
> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
>
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>

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley@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 272860 (secr)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595

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[Rd] problem with help.start() in R (PR#1156)
Prof Brian Ripley