[ESS] launch help.start() in EWW browser

[Stephen Berman]

On Wed, 10 Sep 2025 20:01:26 +0200 Stephen Berman via ESS-help <ess-help using r-project.org> wrote:

> On Wed, 10 Sep 2025 18:58:42 +0200 Sebastian Meyer via ESS-help
> <ess-help using r-project.org> wrote:
>
>> I just noticed there is a related function already in ESS:
>> ess-rutils-html-docs ("Use ‘browse-url’ to navigate R html
>> documentation."). It no longer seems to work though. From an ESS[R] buffer, I
>> get 'Wrong type argument: stringp, nil' and from iESS I get 'Search failed:
>> "http://"'. Maybe that function can be resurrected?
>
> I don't the wrong-type-argument error but I do get the failed search
> error.  The attached patch fixes it for me and then I can use EWW to
> browse the R docs.
>
> Steve Berman

Oops, I guess the list deletes attachments; here's the patch inline:

diff --git a/lisp/ess-r-mode.el b/lisp/ess-r-mode.el
index 2a6c3293..e7bee1a7 100644
--- a/lisp/ess-r-mode.el
+++ b/lisp/ess-r-mode.el
@@ -2930,6 +2930,7 @@ the \\='R_HOME\\=' directory on a remote server (defaults to NULL)."
          (rhtml (format ".ess_help_start(%s, %s)\n" update remote)))
     (with-temp-buffer
       (ess-command rhtml (current-buffer) nil nil nil (get-process proc))
+      (goto-char (point-max))
       (let* ((begurl (search-backward "http://"))
              (endurl (search-forward "index.html"))
              (url (buffer-substring-no-properties begurl endurl)))

Steve Berman