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

2010-03-01 Thread Charlie Sharpsteen
On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 2:46 PM, Duncan Murdoch  wrote:
>
> That's a good point.  Okay, I'll add it (with some sort of addition to the 
> man page to say how it's intended to be used), and perhaps with some special 
> casing for base packages.
>
> Duncan Murdoch

If it is being added, could you change the man page attribution from:

\author{
 David Scott  from code on R-help originally
 due to Sharpie .
}

To:

\author{
 David Scott  from code on R-help originally
 due to Charlie Sharpsteen .
}

Thanks!

-Charlie

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

2010-02-28 Thread Jim Lemon

On 03/01/2010 05:47 AM, David Winsemius wrote:

...
 > maintainer
function(pkg="") packageDescription(pkg)$Maintainer
 > maintainer("brew")
[1] "Jeffrey Horner "



This is a great solution and deserves to go into the utils or tools 
package. When I first saw Tal's message, I immediately thought, "How 
many times have I seen a typo or poorly worded sentence in the help 
pages I maintain, let alone those of other maintainers?" Unless it's a 
real blooper, I decide that it's not worth the trouble of tracking the 
maintainer down to fix a spelling mistake. An email address that was 
obtainable during that brief spasm of motivation would enable me to use 
it productively, and even better, might result in other people notifying 
me of my mistakes before I manage to notice them.


Jim

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

2010-02-28 Thread Duncan Murdoch

On 28/02/2010 2:09 PM, Claudia Beleites wrote:

What about the short-term solution of having a function
package.bug.report - along the lines of bug.report?


That has already been added: see the news here:

http://developer.r-project.org/blosxom.cgi/R-devel/NEWS/2009/11/30#n2009-11-30

Duncan Murdoch

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

2010-02-28 Thread Claudia Beleites

What about the short-term solution of having a function
package.bug.report - along the lines of bug.report?

E.g. see attachment

Claudia


--
Claudia Beleites
Dipartimento dei Materiali e delle Risorse Naturali
Università degli Studi di Trieste
Via Valerio 2
I-34127 Trieste
ITALY

email: cbelei...@units.it
phone: +39 (0 40) 5 58-34 68
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Re: [R] R help question: How can we enable useRs to contribute corrections to help files faster ?

2010-02-28 Thread Duncan Murdoch

On 28/02/2010 1:32 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:

I wonder if this could be made pluggable in the sense that anyone
could develop a CRAN package that hooks into the help system and takes
over.  If its already like that perhaps all that is needed is some
documentation/guidance on how to develop such a package.  There could
be multiple alternative help packages that hook into the help system
on CRAN.  That might be the best way to involve the community since it
involves less coordination to accomplish once the documentation was
written.


That's a good idea.  The documentation has been published here:

http://journal.r-project.org/archive/2009-2/RJournal_2009-2_Murdoch+Urbanek.pdf

I'd be happy to elaborate on any of the missing bits, or add what's 
missing so that others can do this in a package.


Duncan Murdoch



On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 1:24 PM, Duncan Murdoch  wrote:

On 28/02/2010 1:04 PM, Tal Galili wrote:

Duncan,
As much as I agree with your remark in the general case, in this case -
the
annoyance is mostly for the next user and not the current one.

If I spot a typo, after I figure what it had meant - my annoyance is over.
 I don't have any personal motivation to share the knowledge, asides from
my
good intentions.

It would seem to me that making my life easier in reporting the error -
would only do good to the general community.


I agree, and I welcome your contribution.  Take a snapshot of the package
index page, the DESCRIPTION page, and one or two topic pages from the
current R-devel.  Redesign them, put them online, respond to comments until
everyone is convinced (or at least I am) that they can't be substantially
improved.  If you convince me of that, I'll put them (or some approximation
to them) into the sources.


I think the idea of adding a second link to the Index at the top of every
help, is easy to do and would benefit the community member who wishes to
contact the author.

That's not enough.  It will take about the same amount of work on my end to
do *each* small change or a single big change, so I'm not going to do a
sequence of incremental changes.


I also think that adding the e-mail of the maintainer might even be better
(since I remember that when I started using R, I didn't even know I had
someone to contact regarding problems with it).

It is already there.

Duncan Murdoch


This is the place people turn to for help, it makes sense (at least in my
humble opinion) to help the users find other help from that location. (the
same way we provide "see also" and other useful links)


Tal




Contact
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www.r-statistics.com (English)

--




On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 7:24 PM, Duncan Murdoch
wrote:


On 28/02/2010 12:04 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:


On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
wrote:


Gabor Grothendieck wrote:


On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
wrote:

 On 28/02/2010 9:08 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:

 On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Duncan Murdoch

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 look

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

2010-02-28 Thread David Winsemius


On Feb 28, 2010, at 1:04 PM, Tal Galili wrote:


Duncan,
As much as I agree with your remark in the general case, in this  
case - the

annoyance is mostly for the next user and not the current one.

If I spot a typo, after I figure what it had meant - my annoyance is  
over.
I don't have any personal motivation to share the knowledge, asides  
from my

good intentions.

It would seem to me that making my life easier in reporting the  
error -

would only do good to the general community.

I think the idea of adding a second link to the Index at the top of  
every
help, is easy to do and would benefit the community member who  
wishes to

contact the author.

I also think that adding the e-mail of the maintainer might even be  
better
(since I remember that when I started using R, I didn't even know I  
had

someone to contact regarding problems with it).

This is the place people turn to for help,


Well, I got help. Sharpie gave an answer that was easily turned into a  
function that I put in my .Rprofile:


> maintainer
function(pkg="") packageDescription(pkg)$Maintainer
> maintainer("brew")
[1] "Jeffrey Horner "


it makes sense (at least in my
humble opinion) to help the users find other help from that  
location. (the

same way we provide "see also" and other useful links)


David Winsemius, MD
Heritage Laboratories
West Hartford, CT

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

2010-02-28 Thread Gabor Grothendieck
On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 1:38 PM, Duncan Murdoch  wrote:
> On 28/02/2010 1:32 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>
>> I wonder if this could be made pluggable in the sense that anyone
>> could develop a CRAN package that hooks into the help system and takes
>> over.  If its already like that perhaps all that is needed is some
>> documentation/guidance on how to develop such a package.  There could
>> be multiple alternative help packages that hook into the help system
>> on CRAN.  That might be the best way to involve the community since it
>> involves less coordination to accomplish once the documentation was
>> written.
>
> That's a good idea.  The documentation has been published here:
>
> http://journal.r-project.org/archive/2009-2/RJournal_2009-2_Murdoch+Urbanek.pdf
>
> I'd be happy to elaborate on any of the missing bits, or add what's missing
> so that others can do this in a package.
>

Since its already like that this might also be a possible SoC project.

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

2010-02-28 Thread Sharpie

After reading some more, I think Tal's Wiki idea was also a good one--
conceivably a server could be set up that pulled tarballs from CRAN,
unpacked them, and converted the man folders to HTML.

Then the server could provide a sort of a "master list" version of
help.start() where each page was editable using some sort of wiki system. 
Users could fix documentation and developers could download patchfiles that
contained the diff between the current wiki page and the their version of
the documentation that was stored on CRAN.

Sigh, my lack of free time is frustrating this morning...

-Charlie
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View this message in context: 
http://n4.nabble.com/R-help-question-How-can-we-enable-useRs-to-contribute-corrections-to-help-files-faster-tp1572568p1572865.html
Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

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

2010-02-28 Thread Duncan Murdoch

On 28/02/2010 1:04 PM, Tal Galili wrote:

Duncan,
As much as I agree with your remark in the general case, in this case - the
annoyance is mostly for the next user and not the current one.

If I spot a typo, after I figure what it had meant - my annoyance is over.
 I don't have any personal motivation to share the knowledge, asides from my
good intentions.

It would seem to me that making my life easier in reporting the error -
would only do good to the general community.



I agree, and I welcome your contribution.  Take a snapshot of the 
package index page, the DESCRIPTION page, and one or two topic pages 
from the current R-devel.  Redesign them, put them online, respond to 
comments until everyone is convinced (or at least I am) that they can't 
be substantially improved.  If you convince me of that, I'll put them 
(or some approximation to them) into the sources.




I think the idea of adding a second link to the Index at the top of every
help, is easy to do and would benefit the community member who wishes to
contact the author.


That's not enough.  It will take about the same amount of work on my end 
to do *each* small change or a single big change, so I'm not going to do 
a sequence of incremental changes.




I also think that adding the e-mail of the maintainer might even be better
(since I remember that when I started using R, I didn't even know I had
someone to contact regarding problems with it).


It is already there.

Duncan Murdoch


This is the place people turn to for help, it makes sense (at least in my
humble opinion) to help the users find other help from that location. (the
same way we provide "see also" and other useful links)


Tal




Contact
Details:---
Contact me: tal.gal...@gmail.com |  972-52-7275845
Read me: www.talgalili.com (Hebrew) | www.biostatistics.co.il (Hebrew) |
www.r-statistics.com (English)
--




On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 7:24 PM, Duncan Murdoch wrote:


On 28/02/2010 12:04 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:


On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
wrote:


Gabor Grothendieck wrote:


On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
wrote:

 On 28/02/2010 9:08 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:

 On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
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

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

2010-02-28 Thread Tal Galili
Duncan,
As much as I agree with your remark in the general case, in this case - the
annoyance is mostly for the next user and not the current one.

If I spot a typo, after I figure what it had meant - my annoyance is over.
 I don't have any personal motivation to share the knowledge, asides from my
good intentions.

It would seem to me that making my life easier in reporting the error -
would only do good to the general community.

I think the idea of adding a second link to the Index at the top of every
help, is easy to do and would benefit the community member who wishes to
contact the author.

I also think that adding the e-mail of the maintainer might even be better
(since I remember that when I started using R, I didn't even know I had
someone to contact regarding problems with it).

This is the place people turn to for help, it makes sense (at least in my
humble opinion) to help the users find other help from that location. (the
same way we provide "see also" and other useful links)


Tal




Contact
Details:---
Contact me: tal.gal...@gmail.com |  972-52-7275845
Read me: www.talgalili.com (Hebrew) | www.biostatistics.co.il (Hebrew) |
www.r-statistics.com (English)
--




On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 7:24 PM, Duncan Murdoch wrote:

> On 28/02/2010 12:04 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>>
 On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
 wrote:

  On 28/02/2010 9:08 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>
>  On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Duncan Murdoch > >
>> 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 ont

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

2010-02-28 Thread Duncan Murdoch

On 28/02/2010 12:29 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:

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


That's one interpretation.  I'd prefer to think that the short term 
changes happened in November.  All the content is there; it just needs 
to be made prettier.


Duncan Murdoch



On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 12:24 PM, Duncan Murdoch  wrote:

On 28/02/2010 12:04 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
wrote:

Gabor Grothendieck wrote:

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
wrote:


On 28/02/2010 9:08 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:


On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
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



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

2010-02-28 Thread Gabor Grothendieck
I wonder if this could be made pluggable in the sense that anyone
could develop a CRAN package that hooks into the help system and takes
over.  If its already like that perhaps all that is needed is some
documentation/guidance on how to develop such a package.  There could
be multiple alternative help packages that hook into the help system
on CRAN.  That might be the best way to involve the community since it
involves less coordination to accomplish once the documentation was
written.

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 1:24 PM, Duncan Murdoch  wrote:
> On 28/02/2010 1:04 PM, Tal Galili wrote:
>>
>> Duncan,
>> As much as I agree with your remark in the general case, in this case -
>> the
>> annoyance is mostly for the next user and not the current one.
>>
>> If I spot a typo, after I figure what it had meant - my annoyance is over.
>>  I don't have any personal motivation to share the knowledge, asides from
>> my
>> good intentions.
>>
>> It would seem to me that making my life easier in reporting the error -
>> would only do good to the general community.
>
>
> I agree, and I welcome your contribution.  Take a snapshot of the package
> index page, the DESCRIPTION page, and one or two topic pages from the
> current R-devel.  Redesign them, put them online, respond to comments until
> everyone is convinced (or at least I am) that they can't be substantially
> improved.  If you convince me of that, I'll put them (or some approximation
> to them) into the sources.
>
>>
>> I think the idea of adding a second link to the Index at the top of every
>> help, is easy to do and would benefit the community member who wishes to
>> contact the author.
>
> That's not enough.  It will take about the same amount of work on my end to
> do *each* small change or a single big change, so I'm not going to do a
> sequence of incremental changes.
>
>>
>> I also think that adding the e-mail of the maintainer might even be better
>> (since I remember that when I started using R, I didn't even know I had
>> someone to contact regarding problems with it).
>
> It is already there.
>
> Duncan Murdoch
>
>> This is the place people turn to for help, it makes sense (at least in my
>> humble opinion) to help the users find other help from that location. (the
>> same way we provide "see also" and other useful links)
>>
>>
>> Tal
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Contact
>> Details:---
>> Contact me: tal.gal...@gmail.com |  972-52-7275845
>> Read me: www.talgalili.com (Hebrew) | www.biostatistics.co.il (Hebrew) |
>> www.r-statistics.com (English)
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 7:24 PM, Duncan Murdoch
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On 28/02/2010 12:04 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>>
 On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
 wrote:

> Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
>> wrote:
>>
>>  On 28/02/2010 9:08 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>>
>>>  On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Duncan Murdoch
>>> >>>
 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 

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

2010-02-28 Thread Duncan Murdoch

On 28/02/2010 1:23 PM, Sharpie wrote:


Duncan Murdoch wrote:
Yes, I agree.  In fact, I think the whole system needs to be updated.  
Anyone like doing HTML design?




If I had the time, I would raise my hand for this one-- unfortunately
school, work and other commitments leave me with a full schedule for the
foreseeable future.  Now that all R man pages are presented using a HTML
server, it would be nice to overhaul the presentation.  Perhaps something
like the output of Python's Sphinx:

  http://docs.python.org/3.1/tutorial/

The key elements I'm thinking of are:

  - A sidebar with table of contents/navigation

  - A search box


Yes, that looks like a nice design.  But it looks as though nobody has 
the time to do it.


Duncan Murdoch




Personally, I try to put an \author{} field with an email in all of my .Rd
files-- adding this as a requirement to R CMD check could enforce this
behavior.  It could also break 99% of all the package builds on CRAN.

Another way package author/maintainer emails can be quickly obtained is
through the packageDescription() function:

  packageDescription('packageName')$Maintainer


-Charlie


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

2010-02-28 Thread Sharpie


Duncan Murdoch wrote:
> 
> Yes, I agree.  In fact, I think the whole system needs to be updated.  
> Anyone like doing HTML design?
> 

If I had the time, I would raise my hand for this one-- unfortunately
school, work and other commitments leave me with a full schedule for the
foreseeable future.  Now that all R man pages are presented using a HTML
server, it would be nice to overhaul the presentation.  Perhaps something
like the output of Python's Sphinx:

  http://docs.python.org/3.1/tutorial/

The key elements I'm thinking of are:

  - A sidebar with table of contents/navigation

  - A search box


Personally, I try to put an \author{} field with an email in all of my .Rd
files-- adding this as a requirement to R CMD check could enforce this
behavior.  It could also break 99% of all the package builds on CRAN.

Another way package author/maintainer emails can be quickly obtained is
through the packageDescription() function:

  packageDescription('packageName')$Maintainer


-Charlie
-- 
View this message in context: 
http://n4.nabble.com/R-help-question-How-can-we-enable-useRs-to-contribute-corrections-to-help-files-faster-tp1572568p1572854.html
Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

__
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and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.


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

2010-02-28 Thread 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  wrote:
> On 28/02/2010 12:04 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>
>> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Gabor Grothendieck wrote:

 On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
 wrote:

> On 28/02/2010 9:08 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
>> 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

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

2010-02-28 Thread Duncan Murdoch

On 28/02/2010 12:04 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Duncan Murdoch  wrote:

Gabor Grothendieck wrote:

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
wrote:


On 28/02/2010 9:08 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:


On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
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

__
R-help@r-project.org mailing list
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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.


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

2010-02-28 Thread Gabor Grothendieck
On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Duncan Murdoch  wrote:
> Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>
>> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> On 28/02/2010 9:08 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>>

 On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
 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.

__
R-help@r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contai

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

2010-02-28 Thread Duncan Murdoch

Gabor Grothendieck wrote:

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Duncan Murdoch  wrote:
  

On 28/02/2010 9:08 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:


On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
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

__
R-help@r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.


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

2010-02-28 Thread Gabor Grothendieck
On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Duncan Murdoch  wrote:
> On 28/02/2010 9:08 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>
>> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Duncan Murdoch 
>> 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.

- 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.

- 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.

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

2010-02-28 Thread Duncan Murdoch

On 28/02/2010 9:08 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Duncan Murdoch  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.


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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.


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

2010-02-28 Thread Gabor Grothendieck
On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Duncan Murdoch  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

__
R-help@r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.


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

2010-02-28 Thread Duncan Murdoch

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.

Duncan Murdoch




On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 5:44 AM, Tal Galili  wrote:

Hello dear R users,


*Here is the background for my question:*

I just had a look at the help file for
? Yeast
in the "HistData" package.

In it, I found a small spelling mistake where the word "*c*istribution" was
written instead (so I imagin) "*d*istribution".
I thought maybe I should e-mail the developer. Since there is no link to
contacting the developer inside that help page, I went and googled the
package name. Found it's place on cran (in the third result), where I found
the maintainer to be Michael Friendly   (Whom I am
corresponding to this e-mail).

So it took me three steps to send a tiny typo: search the package on google,
find the maintainer e-mail (where "at" should be changed to "@"), and
writing an e-mail.
How could this have been faster?

*Proposed solutions:*

One (simple) way, is for the help page to have the maintainer e-mail present
at the bottom of every help page. Where upon clicking the link - an e-mail
will popup with the e-mails subject header containing the package and the
relevant help page title.
Another (more complex, but more scalable) way, is if the help page could
have been also present on some wiki. Inside the help page, there would be a
link to an "edit" section on the online wikipedia (R-help-epidia)- where I
could have just went and fixed the type.

 What do you think, and who should I propose this to?

Best,
Tal






Contact
Details:---
Contact me: tal.gal...@gmail.com |  972-52-7275845
Read me: www.talgalili.com (Hebrew) | www.biostatistics.co.il (Hebrew) |
www.r-statistics.com (English)
--

   [[alternative HTML version deleted]]

__
R-help@r-project.org mailing list
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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.



__
R-help@r-project.org mailing list
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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.


__
R-help@r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.


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

2010-02-28 Thread Gabor Grothendieck
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.

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 5:44 AM, Tal Galili  wrote:
> Hello dear R users,
>
>
> *Here is the background for my question:*
>
> I just had a look at the help file for
> ? Yeast
> in the "HistData" package.
>
> In it, I found a small spelling mistake where the word "*c*istribution" was
> written instead (so I imagin) "*d*istribution".
> I thought maybe I should e-mail the developer. Since there is no link to
> contacting the developer inside that help page, I went and googled the
> package name. Found it's place on cran (in the third result), where I found
> the maintainer to be Michael Friendly   (Whom I am
> corresponding to this e-mail).
>
> So it took me three steps to send a tiny typo: search the package on google,
> find the maintainer e-mail (where "at" should be changed to "@"), and
> writing an e-mail.
> How could this have been faster?
>
> *Proposed solutions:*
>
> One (simple) way, is for the help page to have the maintainer e-mail present
> at the bottom of every help page. Where upon clicking the link - an e-mail
> will popup with the e-mails subject header containing the package and the
> relevant help page title.
> Another (more complex, but more scalable) way, is if the help page could
> have been also present on some wiki. Inside the help page, there would be a
> link to an "edit" section on the online wikipedia (R-help-epidia)- where I
> could have just went and fixed the type.
>
>  What do you think, and who should I propose this to?
>
> Best,
> Tal
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Contact
> Details:---
> Contact me: tal.gal...@gmail.com |  972-52-7275845
> Read me: www.talgalili.com (Hebrew) | www.biostatistics.co.il (Hebrew) |
> www.r-statistics.com (English)
> --
>
>        [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> __
> R-help@r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

__
R-help@r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.


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

2010-02-28 Thread Tal Galili
Hello dear R users,


*Here is the background for my question:*

I just had a look at the help file for
? Yeast
in the "HistData" package.

In it, I found a small spelling mistake where the word "*c*istribution" was
written instead (so I imagin) "*d*istribution".
I thought maybe I should e-mail the developer. Since there is no link to
contacting the developer inside that help page, I went and googled the
package name. Found it's place on cran (in the third result), where I found
the maintainer to be Michael Friendly   (Whom I am
corresponding to this e-mail).

So it took me three steps to send a tiny typo: search the package on google,
find the maintainer e-mail (where "at" should be changed to "@"), and
writing an e-mail.
How could this have been faster?

*Proposed solutions:*

One (simple) way, is for the help page to have the maintainer e-mail present
at the bottom of every help page. Where upon clicking the link - an e-mail
will popup with the e-mails subject header containing the package and the
relevant help page title.
Another (more complex, but more scalable) way, is if the help page could
have been also present on some wiki. Inside the help page, there would be a
link to an "edit" section on the online wikipedia (R-help-epidia)- where I
could have just went and fixed the type.

 What do you think, and who should I propose this to?

Best,
Tal






Contact
Details:---
Contact me: tal.gal...@gmail.com |  972-52-7275845
Read me: www.talgalili.com (Hebrew) | www.biostatistics.co.il (Hebrew) |
www.r-statistics.com (English)
--

[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

__
R-help@r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.