From Prof Brian Ripley <ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk>  Mon Apr 10 15:31:49 2000
From: Prof Brian Ripley <ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk> (Prof Brian Ripley)
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 15:31:49 +0100 (BST)
Subject: [Rd] 00Index of data
Message-ID: <200004101431.PAA22511@toucan.stats.ox.ac.uk>


> Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 10:25:41 -0400
> From: Paul Gilbert <pgilbert@bank-banque-canada.ca>
> To: Prof Brian Ripley <ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk>
> CC: r-devel@stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: Re: [Rd] 00Index of data
> 
> >the help page for the data.
> 
> Now that's something I didn't know about but is probably documented
> somewhere that I missed. (No wonder I found the index rather
> restrictive.) I now see it is reported as missing documentation by R CMD
> build. (It is buried by all the other warnings.) I guess it should just

When you solve all the others it will emerge more clearly :)

> be an Rd file like the function help. 

Yes, and `Writing R Extensions' tells you about making help files for data.
And the base system has them. (So does S-PLUS!)

> Does a link get automatically
> built from the 00Index of the data to the help for data or do I need to
> point readers to the help?

Readers are supposed to know to look for help on R *objects* (not
just functions).  Even the help.start intro says `Functions & Datasets'

>  Or will the 00Index of the data get built
> automatically from the titles in the data help files in the same way
> that the function index is built? (And if so, how does it know the
> documentation is for data?)

It does not get built, and help for data goes in INDEX. (That is
one reason why some of us prefer hand-crafted INDEX files.)
We are moving towards a way to distinguish the object type in a help file,
but are not there yet.


-- 
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] 00Index of data
Prof Brian Ripley