For what it's worth...
I find that search capabilities in the Java help system in v6.0 unix
are not particularly worse or better than what was in version 5.x.
Version 6 unix already has html versions of the help files.
For example, starting from the S-Plus installation root directory, here is one:
./library/splus/.Data/__Hhelp/acf.html
Since the java gui is so miserable when used on a remote non-Solaris
client (at least it is in my configuration, your mileage may vary),
I've downloaded a bunch of these files to my Mac. They're easily
viewed with a browser there. Cross-references don't work, nor is
there any real search capability, but at least they display legibly
and print decently.
-Don
At 3:11 PM -0500 3/21/01, Frank E Harrell Jr wrote:
Dear Kevin,
You raised some excellent points. I believe that things are actually
going to get worse in S-Plus 6.0 as I think that even more
proprietary (if that's possible) Microsoft help software will
be used on the Windows version, while Java will be used on
other versions. The Java-based help system is, from my
limited testing, somewhat slow and does not render the
display very clearly. Search capabilities are not impressive.
The Java help system uses a lot of memory. I hope that
someone from Insightful will correct me if I have
misstated any of this or if I have not kept up with current
developments of the help system.
The HTML system you provided a link to is impressive. I
would like to know how the files were converted. I have
not been able to understand why S-Plus does not rely more
on HTML except for the issues related to math symbols and
graphics.
For my Hmisc and Design libraries I plan to maintain html
online documentation (see
http://hesweb1.med.virginia.edu/biostat/s/help/00Index.html
) as a primary format. A disadvantage of this approach is
that it fails to link into "See also" functions that are
in the main package.
For the R html help system see
http://stat.ethz.ch/R-alpha/Rrelease/doc/html/
Frank Harrell
"Wright, Kevin" wrote:
I use S-Plus 2000 on Windows 95. The Windows help files give me a fair bit
of frustration. For example, if I pull up the help file for "par" and want
to read about "pty", I have to manually search through the help file to find
"pty".
What I'd like is to be able to search an individual help file for text.
Does anybody have suggestions for this?
HTML would be good. "man" pages would be good (actually great since then a
person can use "man -k" and/or "grep" for searching). "nroff" is good since
there are utilities to turn it into other formats. Proprietary formats (from
Microsoft) are very, very, very bad.
Here are some of my own attempts to satisfy my desire:
1. Use Acrobat Reader to search the PDF manuals. Not too bad, but searching
is slow and results in lots of false positives.
2. I've searched for a freeware program that reads Windows help files and
has the ability to search individual help files. No luck.
3. I have searched on the web for a tool to convert Windows help files to
HTML files (or nroff, tex-info, or anything) and have come up with very
little.
4. Benno Sueselbeck converted nroff files to HTML and has them posted at
this site which I find extraordinarily useful and easy to use (Insightful,
please take note!)
http://www.uni-muenster.de/ZIV/Mitarbeiter/BennoSueselbeck/s-html/shelp.html
5. With the upcoming near-synchronization of Windows/UNIX versions of
S-Plus, would Insightful consider including source "code" for the help
(nroff or whatever they're using now) in a directory on the CD so we can
format it as we like best?
Thanks for any ideas. I'll summarize useful information to S-news.
Kevin Wright, Research Scientist
Pioneer Hi-Bred Int'l, x4054.
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Frank E Harrell Jr Prof. of Biostatistics & Statistics
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Don MacQueen
Environmental Protection Department
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Livermore, CA, USA
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