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loading RMark help files

PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 10:06 am
by mcallen
From the RMark download site:
The rprofile.site file is also a good place to make generic modifications. For example, adding the command options(chmhelp=TRUE) will mean that the help command will use the compiled help tool for windows. Or you can use options(htmlhelp=TRUE) to use the non-compiled html help. Either of these is better than using the default which does not allow hyperlinks. If you set up either help option you can enter “?mark” to see all the help categories for RMark.


I have added the text "options(chmhelp=TRUE)" to the rprofile.site file, but still am unable to load any RMark help files in R (e.g., ?mark, ?mallard). I get this error message:

Error in print.help_files_with_topic(x) :
No text help for 'mark' is available:
corresponding file is missing
In addition: Warning message:
In print.help_files_with_topic("C:/Users/Mike/Documents/R/win-library/2.9/RMark/chm/mark") :
No CHM help for 'mark' in package 'RMark' is available:
the CHM file for the package is missing


Am I doing this right, or is there another way to access the help files?

PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 10:16 am
by jlaake
I need to change the documentation and web site info. The newest version of RMark was built with R2.10 and they have dropped the compiled help option because Microsoft is no longer supporting it. Set:

options(htmlhelp=TRUE)

Then try ?mallard

You should be able to do that in R to test that it works before you change your Rprofile.site file. --jeff

PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:50 pm
by jlaake
Correction on the last posting. It is actually

options(help_type="html")

But I just tried that with r2.9 and I got:

> ?mark
Error in print.help_files_with_topic("C:/Users/Jeff Laake/Desktop/RHome/RLibraries/RMark/help/mark") :
No text help for 'mark' is available:
corresponding file is missing

So apparently to get help you'll need to update to R2.10 to use help with the newest version of RMark which was built with 2.10.

Just confirming help file mess

PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 1:25 pm
by dhewitt
This switch in help file handling was not terribly well described or advertised by the R developers in association with the release of 2.10.0. Had me confused and annoyed for a bit. I can confirm Jeff's last message as a solution and the need to upgrade to 2.10.0 to get the help working. I added the below two lines to Rprofile.site and it works fine.

options(help_type="html")
options(browser="C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe")

Re: Just confirming help file mess

PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 1:45 pm
by cooch
dhewitt wrote:This switch in help file handling was not terribly well described or advertised by the R developers in association with the release of 2.10.0.


And this surprises you....why? This is R we're talking about, after all.