[R] R help question: How can we enable useRs to contribute corrections to help files faster ?

[Gabor Grothendieck]

Or both the short and and the long term won't happen.

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 12:24 PM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
> On 28/02/2010 12:04 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>
>> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 28/02/2010 9:08 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 28/02/2010 7:19 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The name of the package is at the top of each help page and then
>>>>>>>> library(help = myPackage) would get you the maintainer info.  Or in
>>>>>>>> place of the last step googling for CRAN myPackage would get to a
>>>>>>>> page
>>>>>>>> like this:
>>>>>>>> http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/zoo/index.html
>>>>>>>> so it could be done in two steps.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> What would be nice would be if the R help systems HTML help page for
>>>>>>>> each command had a link to a local version of the above page for the
>>>>>>>> associated package (and perhaps the HTML Index page for the package
>>>>>>>> would also link to it).  Then it would just be a matter of bringing
>>>>>>>> up
>>>>>>>> the help page and clicking on the package name at the top.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Not all of the information on that page would make sense locally.
>>>>>>>  Some
>>>>>>> of
>>>>>>> it is there to help you decide whether to download the package, or to
>>>>>>> actually download it.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The things I see that aren't available in the package index page in
>>>>>>> R-devel:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  - CRAN checks
>>>>>>>  - download links
>>>>>>>  - reverse dependencies
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Am I missing something?  None of those seem like they'd be sensible
>>>>>>> locally.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> By Index page I was referring to the page you get when you click Index
>>>>>> at the bottom of any HTML help file.  After clicking Index you get an
>>>>>> HTML page that gives a clickable list of help pages for that package.
>>>>>> You don`t get the description of the package, the name and contact
>>>>>> info to the maintainer, or a link to such info.  For the
>>>>>> helloJavaWorld package this is what you get (where I have added a star
>>>>>> after each link):
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hello Java World
>>>>>> Documentation for package ‘helloJavaWorld’ version 0.0-6
>>>>>> User Guides and Package Vignettes
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Read overview* or browse directory*.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Help Pages
>>>>>>
>>>>>> helloJavaWorld* Function to say hello from a Java class
>>>>>>
>>>>> That looks like 2.10.x or earlier.  In R-devel (to be 2.11.0) you get:
>>>>>
>>>>> Documentation for package ‘helloJavaWorld’ version 0.0-7
>>>>>
>>>>>  * DESCRIPTION file.
>>>>>  * Overview of user guides and package vignettes; browse directory.
>>>>>
>>>>> Help Pages
>>>>> helloJavaWorld  Function to say hello from a Java class
>>>>>
>>>>> The only addition for that particular package is the link to the
>>>>> DESCRIPTION
>>>>> file, which contains most of the additional information that's on the
>>>>> CRAN
>>>>> page.  Other pages will also show links to demos and package NEWS.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> That's great. Looks like you have already anticipated this.
>>>>
>>>> Would still be nice to have
>>>>
>>>> - a second link to the Index at the top of each help page since its
>>>> typically off the screen otherwise.
>>>>
>>> Yes, I agree.  In fact, I think the whole system needs to be updated.
>>>  Anyone like doing HTML design?
>>>>
>>>> - also if the DESCRIPTION could be HTMLized with links that would be
>>>> nice.  The software that puts the DESCRIPTION file info up onto CRAN
>>>> already can do that so the capability seems to exist.
>>>>
>>> Sure, but remember that CRAN is not part of R, so the code needs to be
>>> extracted from the CRAN code (which I don't have a copy of), and
>>> rewritten
>>> to suit the new context.  It may not be any easier to do that than to
>>> redo
>>> it from scratch, but in any case, it needs someone to volunteer to do it
>>> (and I think it should be part of the HTML design mentioned above.
>>>>
>>>> - a link from the Index or possibly right from each help page to the
>>>> help.start() page so that once you are in HTML you can just click
>>>> about rather than having to go back to R and then back into help.
>>>> Its normal in web pages that there is a link on every one of them back
>>>> to the home page.  Typically clicking the site name or logo at the top
>>>> gets you there.
>>>
>>> Currently from any help page you can get there in two clicks:  the
>>> "Index"
>>> link at the bottom of the page takes you to the package index, the up
>>> arrow
>>> on the package index takes you to the help.start() page.  But I agree
>>> this
>>> could be improved: see above.
>>>
>>> Duncan Murdoch
>>>
>>
>> Couldn't this be separated into short term and long term.  Surely its
>> trivial to add a second link to the Index at the top of every help
>> page and that  is the most important of all the wish list items.  That
>> shouldn't have to wait for a redesign (which could take some time)
>> since its such an annoyance.
>
> That's one argument.  Another is that the more of an annoyance it is, the
> more likely someone will be motivated to fix it.  If we do a partial job to
> remove the annoyance, the long term improvement might never happen.
>
> Duncan Murdoch
>