Hi,
In a recent reply I sent to the list, my initial response was to
suggest, politely that by reading the posting guide and learning to use
the supplied tools one can often help oneself. I then went on to say
that reading the posting guide would have led you to RSiteSearch("insert
query"). Luckily I went to the posting guide to check this was there
before posting and much to my surprise that page does not once mention
this excellent facility!
In the section "Do your homework before posting:", help.search()
and ?foo are recommended, but these only work for installed, and
possibly loaded, packages. Wouldn't it be better to suggest a user try
RSiteSearch("foo") as well? This way they are far more likely to find
something relevant if that something resides on CRAN or the mailing list
archives.
Can I suggest adding another bullet with the following text to the "Do
your homework before posting:" section:
Do RSiteSearch("keyword") with different keywords (type this at the R
prompt) to search R, contributed packages and R-Help postings. To
restrict the search to functions only, use RSiteSearch("keyword",
restrict = "functions"). See ?RSiteSearch.
or shorter:
Do RSiteSearch("keyword") with different keywords (type this at the R
prompt) to search R functions, contributed packages and R-Help postings.
See ?RSiteSearch for further options and to restrict searches.
G
--
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Gavin Simpson [t] +44 (0)20 7679 0522
ECRC & ENSIS, UCL Geography, [f] +44 (0)20 7679 0565
Pearson Building, [e] gavin.simpsonATNOSPAMucl.ac.uk
Gower Street, London [w] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfagls/cv/
London, UK. WC1E 6BT. [w] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfagls/
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______________________________________________
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PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
