[ESS] Feature Idea: open help in browser when viewing it in an emacs buffer

[Steve Lianoglou]

Hi Vitalie,

Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for ... awesome.

Cheers,
-steve

On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 11:01 AM, Vitalie Spinu <spinuvit.list at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> This should do the trick
>
> (defun ess-display-help-in-browser ()
>  (interactive)
>  (if (not (equal ess-dialect "R"))
>      (message "Sorry, not available for the dialect %s " ess-dialect )
>    (let ((object (buffer-name)))
>      (string-match ".*(\\(.*\\))[^)]*\\'" object)
>      (setq object (match-string 1 object))
>      (if (not object)
>          (message "Cannot infer the help object from buffer name")
>        (ess-command (format "help('%s', help_type='html')\n" object))
>        (message "Help for '%s' opened in the web-browser" object))
>    )))
>
>
> (define-key ess-help-mode-map "w" 'ess-display-help-in-browser)
>
> The only thing that I am missing in ess R-help is the ability to open
> the index of a package directly from ess-help buffer. I will find a
> way to do it and post to the thread latter.
>
> Have anyone already given a thought of how to implement html help
> directly in emacs? And which text browser should it be based - w3,
> w3m, lynx, links, Elinks?
>
> Vitalie.
>
> On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 2:08 PM, Steve Lianoglou
> <mailinglist.honeypot at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Matthew,
>>
>> On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 8:36 AM, Matthew Landis <landis at isciences.com> wrote:
>>> Steve,
>>>
>>> My ESS set up already opens help in HTML.  I can't recall the actual process
>>> of setting it up, but it might be as simple as including this in your
>>> .emacs:
>>>
>>> (setq ess-help-own-frame 'one)
>>> (setq inferior-ess-r-help-command "help(\"%s\", help_type=\"html\")\n")
>>>
>>> At least, that's what I've got that seems relevant to help.  I can't claim
>>> to follow exactly what it's doing though.
>>
>> I actually had it set to do the same for some time, but I've come to
>> realize that it's a bit more handy to view the help in an emacs
>> buffer. What I thought might be cool is to be able to have emacs
>> launch the help page in your browser from within the help page you are
>> already looking at in emacs.
>>
>> For example, I'd type `?plot` to get help on plot to pop up in my
>> emacs buffer. As I'm browsing it, I (for some reason) think "hey, I
>> kind of want to see this in my web browser right now" and then press
>> `w` (or whatever) as I'm reading the help in emacs to then launch it
>> in the web browser.
>>
>>
>>> By the way, can anyone tell me why, whenever I call help at the R prompt
>>> (e.g. ?setZ), the help page opens in my browser but also opens a new ESS
>>> buffer in a new frame, called, e.g. *help[R](setZ)*.  This is mildly
>>> annoying.  I would love to have a way of not having that little frame get in
>>> my way each time I call help.
>>
>> I think this has come up on the mailing list before -- not sure if
>> there was an easy fix for it, though.
>>
>> -steve
>>
>> --
>> Steve Lianoglou
>> Graduate Student: Computational Systems Biology
>>  | Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
>>  | Weill Medical College of Cornell University
>> Contact Info: http://cbio.mskcc.org/~lianos/contact
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> ESS-help at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/ess-help
>>
>



-- 
Steve Lianoglou
Graduate Student: Computational Systems Biology
 | Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
 | Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Contact Info: http://cbio.mskcc.org/~lianos/contact