Hi Ben,
Ok, thanks for that clarification. That fundamentally alters my view of the
issue.
For verification, can you start R in a terminal and then type:
options(help_type = "html")
after which, then try help for some function (e.g. ?plot) and see what happens.
Thanks,
Marc
> On Oct 18, 2018, at 5:45 PM, Ben Tupper <btup...@bigelow.org> wrote:
>
> You are correct that it only comes up in the text pager when I invoke R from
> the terminal (with or without --vanilla).
>
> RStudio help works as expected in the sense that help content is rendered
> within the RStudio panes on the "Help" tab - just as you surmised.
>
> Cheers (really!),
> Ben
>
>> On Oct 18, 2018, at 5:32 PM, Marc Schwartz <marc_schwa...@me.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Ben,
>>
>> A question, because as I go back and re-read both this thread and the prior
>> one you posted on this issue, I have been presuming that when you run R from
>> the terminal, you can successfully get help to open in an external browser.
>>
>> However, given my re-read and what you now post below, I am wondering if, in
>> fact, when running R in the terminal, you simply get the help displaying in
>> the text pager.
>>
>> I don't use RStudio, so not sure if help comes up in their own internal
>> browser, or if it comes up in an external browser. Albeit, looking at their
>> website, it appears to be an internal browser that stays within the IDE, in
>> contrast to R.app opening the internal browser in an external window.
>>
>> Can you confirm that when you run R from the terminal, does help appear
>> within the terminal window in the pager, or does it come up in whatever
>> external browser you are using, which I am guessing is Firefox based upon
>> the output below.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Marc
>>
>>
>>
>>> On Oct 18, 2018, at 5:09 PM, Ben Tupper <btup...@bigelow.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> In a fresh R.app session
>>>
>>>> debug(get("aqua.browser", envir = as.environment("tools:RGUI")))
>>>> help('help')
>>> starting httpd help server ... done
>>> debugging in: browser(if (encodeIfNeeded) URLencode(url) else url)
>>> debug: {
>>> x <- gsub("http://127.0.0.1";, "http://localhost";, x, fixed = TRUE)
>>> .Call("aqua.custom.print", "help-files", x)
>>> invisible(x)
>>> }
>>> Browse[2]> n
>>> debug: x <- gsub("http://127.0.0.1";, "http://localhost";, x, fixed = TRUE)
>>> Browse[2]> n
>>> debug: .Call("aqua.custom.print", "help-files", x)
>>> Browse[2]> browseURL(x)
>>>
>>>
>>> opens the external browser
>>> http://localhost:28450/library/utils/html/help.html<http://localhost:28450/library/utils/html/help.html>
>>>
>>> but the browser says...
>>>
>>> "Hmm. We’re having trouble finding that site.
>>> We can’t connect to the server at localhost.
>>> If that address is correct, here are three other things you can try:
>>>
>>> Try again later.
>>> Check your network connection.
>>> If you are connected but behind a firewall, check that Firefox has
>>> permission to access the Web."
>>>
>>>
>>> And...
>>>
>>> Browse[2]> c
>>> exiting from: browser(if (encodeIfNeeded) URLencode(url) else url)
>>>
>>> ... opens the blank help window.
>>>
>>>
>>> Finally, following up on Marc's suggestion that I invoke R without
>>> --vanilla...
>>>
>>> ben@gale ~ $ diff R-app-options R-options
>>> 81c81
>>> < <bytecode: 0x7fd0b1fcbbc0>
>>> ---
>>>> <bytecode: 0x7fb46a177890>
>>> 108,110d107
>>> < $help_type
>>> < [1] "html"
>>> <
>>> 184,185c181,182
>>> < CRAN
>>> < "http://cran.utstat.utoronto.ca";
>>> ---
>>>> CRAN
>>>> "@CRAN@"
>>> 247c244
>>> < [1] 168
>>> ---
>>>> [1] 80
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Oct 18, 2018, at 4:49 PM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.dun...@gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On 18/10/2018 8:50 AM, Ben Tupper wrote:
>>>>> I also have no firewall running on the platform. I do have
>>>>> anti-virus/malware and have turned it off. The help window still renders
>>>>> with a blank page and there is no text captured with a copy-paste.
>>>>> I tried debug() as Duncan suggested and get the following in a fresh
>>>>> R.app session...
>>>>
>>>> Okay, that wasn't as informative as I had hoped. Could you try the
>>>> following:
>>>>
>>>> debug(get("aqua.browser", envir = as.environment("tools:RGUI")))
>>>>
>>>> then ask for help on something. You should stop in the debugger seeing
>>>> something like
>>>>
>>>> debugging in: browser(if (encodeIfNeeded) URLencode(url) else url)
>>>> debug: {
>>>> x <- gsub("http://127.0.0.1 <http://127.0.0.1/>", "http://localhost
>>>> <http://localhost/>", x, fixed = TRUE)
>>>> .Call("aqua.custom.print", "help-files", x)
>>>> invisible(x)
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> At the prompt, type "n" (without the quotes, followed by return) twice,
>>>> until you are at the .Call line. Then type
>>>>
>>>> browseURL(x)
>>>>
>>>> This should open your external browser. It will either show a blank page,
>>>> or the help page: that will indicate whether the problem is in the
>>>> internal browser or in the server.
>>>>
>>>> Then go back to R.app, and type "c". This should open the same help page
>>>> in the internal browser. It might show a blank page, or the regular help
>>>> page: either one would tell us something.
>>>>
>>>> Duncan Murdoch
>>>>
>>
>> <snip>
>
> Ben Tupper
> Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
> 60 Bigelow Drive, P.O. Box 380
> East Boothbay, Maine 04544
> http://www.bigelow.org
>
> Ecological Forecasting: https://eco.bigelow.org/
>
>
>
>
>
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