[ESS] keystroke for help

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "ba" == baptiste auguie <baptiste.auguie at googlemail.com>
>>>>>     on Tue, 1 Sep 2009 14:49:07 +0200 writes:

    ba> Thanks! I'd tried that but sadly it was on a Grid function, and it so
    ba> happens that Grid isn't part of the default help system... I guess custom
    ba> packages can be added to the search path, somehow?

?? 
Of course, help is only searched in active packages, not in all
the thousands of packages that may be installed.

    ba> Best regards,

    ba> baptiste

    ba> (still hoping to raise my editing ratio real work vs. ~/.emacs higher than
    ba> unity)

!! 


    ba> 2009/9/1 Stephen Eglen <S.J.Eglen at damtp.cam.ac.uk>

    >> baptiste auguie <baptiste.auguie at googlemail.com> wrote:
    >> 
    >> > Dear all,
    >> >
    >> > Yet again a silly question: how do you obtain help for a given function
    >> > (selected, or simply where the cursor currently sits)? I could use C-c
    >> C-v
    >> > but this requires me to type the word again.
    >> 
    >> If point (emacs' term for the cursor) is currently on a R function,
    >> e.g. apply, then when you do C-c C-v you should see in the echo area:
    >> 
    >> Help on (default apply):
    >> 
    >> so if you hit return, the default is used.
    >> 
    >> > Also, is there a way to open the help in a new window as opposed to
    >> > masking the buffer I was working on?  I keep having to switch back to
    >> > this one with the mouse and it's annoying (e.g. when I start the R
    >> > process it covers the file i was working with).

"cover"  ???
You should have the help open in another emacs buffer (in the
same frame aka "window"), and you can very quickly switch and
from that , using  C-x o / C-x 1 / C-x 0 / C-x b  etc etc.
*NO* need for the mouse here. There's nothing faster than the
keyboard.

    >> See variable ess-help-own-frame if you want it in a separate frame.

Yes, but that will be even "slower" and more "mouse using".

Martin