help.start               package:utils               R Documentation

Hypertext Documentation

Description:

     Start the hypertext (currently HTML) version of R's online
     documentation.

Usage:

     help.start(gui = "irrelevant", browser = getOption("browser"),
                remote = NULL, searchEngine = FALSE)

Arguments:

     gui: just for compatibility with S-PLUS.

 browser: the name of the program to be used as hypertext browser. It
          should be in the 'PATH', or a full path specified.
          Alternatively, it can be a function which will be called with
          an URL as its only argument. 

  remote: A character giving a valid URL for the 'R_HOME' directory on
          a remote location.

searchEngine: logical: if true go directly to the search engine page. 
          A workaround for Firefox 3 users (see 'Notes').

Details:

     All the packages in the known library trees are linked to
     directory '.R' in the per-session temporary directory.  The links
     are re-made each time 'make.packages.html' or 'help.start' is run,
     which should be done after packages are installed, updated or
     removed.

     A side effect is to set 'options(htmlhelp = TRUE)' so that future
     help requests (by default) are sent to the browser.

     If the browser named by the 'browser' argument is different from
     the default browser as specified by 'options("browser")', the
     default is changed to the given browser so that it gets used for
     all future help requests.  (This only holds when 'browser' is a
     name, not a function.)

Note:

     There is a Java-based search facility available from the HTML page
     that 'help.start' brings up.  Should this not work, please consult
     the 'R Installation and Administration' manual which is linked
     from that page.

     Note to users of Firefox 3: the search results have links that are
     resolved incorrectly by that browser if starting from the normal
     HTML index page.  The workaround is to start with
     'help.start(searchEngine = TRUE)'

See Also:

     'help()' for on- and off-line help in ASCII/Editor or PostScript
     format.

     'browseURL' for how the help file is displayed.

     'RSiteSearch' to access an on-line search of R resources.

Examples:

     ## Not run: 
     help.start()
     ## End(Not run)

