[Blindmath] R help issue resolved

[Jonathan Godfrey]

Hello all,


Recall I discovered an issue with the latest version of R - 2.10.0

Courtesy of pestering one of the developers here in NZ, I was fobbed 
off to another developer in Canada who provided the solution.

I now see no reason for not using version 2.10.0 now. Upgrade at will 
and follow the instructions below. N.B. there are other instruction 
for getting R to work well for screen readers in the list archive.

The following is an extract from a document I am working on.

<starts>

Change in software is inevitable and R does undergo changes
all the time. When version 2.10.0 came out the standard
functionality of R's help was fundamentally altered. In
version 2.9.2 and before, typing ?Mean would open an
internet explorer window with the help page. This was very
readable by screen reader software. In version 2.10.0, this
default behaviour has changed. We can force the html help pages
to be displayed but we need to edit a specific file.

You will need to find the folder where R was installed. It
should be in the ``Program Files" folder if you installed using
the default settings when you installed R. We are looking for
a file called Rprofile.site
  it is in the ``etc" folder.

Open this file in your favourite  text editor. We are looking
for a line that currently says

# options(help_type="html")

  The hash or number sign, call it what you
will, stops the command from being executed. Remove the
character so that the line starts with options. Save the
file.


Now open R and type ?mean
  You should be able to see full html style help complete with the 
ability to link to other
help pages.

<ends>

Cheers,
Jonathan




_____
Dr A. Jonathan R. Godfrey
Lecturer in Statistics
Institute of Fundamental Sciences
Massey University
Palmerston North
Phone: +64-6-356 9099 ext 7705
Mobile: +64-29-538-9814
Room: AH2.82

Home Address: 22 Bond St, Palm. Nth.
Home Phone: +64-6-353 2224 (or FleaBag if you prefer to remember it that way)