[ESS] Help pops up in web browser

[Naresh Gurbuxani]

Julian,

I was able to solve the second problem.  Now when I type ?library, R help is displayed in an emacs window, not a browser.

But the first problem remains.  When I type and incomplete command (e.g., "libr"), emacs displays the entire documentation of "library" in inferior ESS window.  So emacs still opens the help file, not in browser but in inferior ESS window.

I only want help document displayed when specifically asked (e.g., by typing ?library in inferior ESS window).  Otherwise, I only want a "temporary window" which shows possible completions and documentation, but disappears when command is complete.

Thanks,
Naresh

________________________________
From: Julian M. Burgos <julian.burgos using hafogvatn.is>
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2020 5:03 AM
To: Naresh Gurbuxani <naresh_gurbuxani using hotmail.com>
Cc: ess-help using r-project.org <ess-help using r-project.org>
Subject: Re: [ESS] Help pops up in web browser

Hi Naresh,

I had a similar issue recently with emacs "automatically" opening the help file from a function when I started to type it.  It took me a lot of head scratching but I figured out that the culprit was one of the company-frontends (probably interacting with some other component of my setup).  I used to have these:

(setq company-frontends
           '(company-pseudo-tooltip-unless-just-one-frontend
                     company-preview-frontend
                      company-echo-metadata-frontend))

I replaced them for this:

(setq company-frontends '(company-pseudo-tooltip-frontend
                          company-echo-metadata-frontend))

And the problem went away.  I do not know exactly why.

I found an old discussion thread where the problem was related to a conflict between the use of autocompletion and the use of html help:

https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/ess-help/2013-April/008868.html

... the problem was that help was *supposed* to show up automatically in a pop-up window, but if you had your help file show up as html (instead of plain text), you get a browser with the help file instead.

I assume that something similar is happening now with company-mode.

Because I prefer the help in html (because hyperlinks, and as I use EXWM and the browser shows up within an emacs buffer) in my .emacs file I have this:

(setq inferior-ess-r-help-command "help(\"%s\", help_type=\"html\")\n")

But if you want (or need) help in plain text you can use

help_type=text

to ensure that the help shows up as text.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Julian


Naresh Gurbuxani via ESS-help writes:

> To display python documentation, I recently installed company-quickhelp.  While it works well for python, my emacs now has an annoying feature in ess-r mode.
>
> When I linger on an R function, emacs launches a new web browser window displaying help for that function.  For example on typing �libr�, emacs launches a new browser window displaying documentation for �library�.  Moreover, the browser becomes the active application.
>
> How can this feature be turned off?  I want documentation to be displayed only when asked.  Moreover, I want to see documentation in emacs window.
>

>
> Thanks,
> Naresh
>
> Sent from my iPhone
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--
Julian Mariano Burgos, PhD
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