I'm going to add a related question. Does anyone else have trouble
closing the separate Netscape windows that open up with the individual
help files? The only way I have determined is to exit help.start(). It
would be nice to be able to close the help file but not help.start()
entirely. In fact, if you accidentally "close" the help.start window
instead of "exiting" it, the helpfile windows are still around and you
have to exit S entirely to get rid of them.
For some reason only the menubar containing Bookmarks and File Location
appear in the helpfile window instead of the File Edit View Go etc..
menubar. So if I want to print the helpfile, I note where the file is
located and call Netscape to open the file directly. That way I have the
ability to print the file. A rather roundabout and inefficent method.
We use 5.1 Release 1 for Sun SPARC. Right now, I just bypass help.start()
entirely and rely on help(). Is there some options that can be set to get
the File Edit View etc.. menubar to show up in the individual helpfile
windows? Is there some Netscape trick we are unaware of?
I suspect that somewhere in the Splus filesystem there are some
scripts that control some of these things. If someone would poke
around, I'd bet we could have some good improvements. But not in the
form of options. In the form of revising their scripts.
Unfortunately, I've never felt I could justify the time it would
take, relative to what my employer expects of me.
On my list are:
- Help sub-windows open up with more lines
- The ability to look at the help for more than one function at
once. Kind of basic, huh?
- Ability to print a help page
- Better cross referencing, resulting in better searching
- A complete set of help pages (some are missing)
- Up to date help pages. For example, the current help page for
module() omits one of the presumably new arguments.
AND up-to-date hardcopy help pages included with the distribution. As
in a BOOK or MANUAL. I hate being restricted to online only.
I too have ended up using help() more than help.start(), especially
since on the systems I have access to, Netscape grabs all the color
resources, so I always have to remember to start my graphics device
_before_ using help.start().
-Don
Thanks for any insight,
Nicole
______________________________________________________________________________
Nicole DePriest (614) 292-6038
Statistics Department ntd@stat.mps.ohio-state.edu
The Ohio State University
1958 Neil Ave., #404
Columbus, OH 43210, USA
On Wed, 10 May 2000, Carlisle Thacker wrote:
>
> I have recently change to Splus version 5.1 on Sun Solaris and I find
> that the new help system based on netscape to be inferior to the old
> help system. Is there any way to use the old help system together
> with version 5.1?
>
> Thanks.
>
> ********************************************************
> * William Carlisle Thacker *
> * *
> * Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory *
> * 4301 Rickenbacker Causeway *
> * Miami, Florida 33149 USA *
> * Office: (305) 361-4323 *
> * Fax: (305) 361-4392 *
> ********************************************************
>
>
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Don MacQueen
Environmental Protection Dept.
Livermore, CA, USA
Lawrence Livermore National Lab
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