help on R primitives

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "Bill" == Bill Simpson <wsimpson@uwinnipeg.ca> writes:

    Bill> Not sure if primitives is the right word, but look at this:
    >> help(for)
    Bill> Error: syntax error
    >> ?for
    Bill> + [hit ctrl-c to get out at this pt]

    Bill> Either way I try I can't get help on for. Can the help mechanism
    Bill> be modified so it is possible to get help on these guys?  Another
    Bill> example:
    >> help(if)
    Bill> Error: syntax error

I'm not sure if we can prevent these cases, without a lot of special case
coding ((it is pretty delicate to improve help(.)  [argument deparsing...]))

However, 

	" help on 'help' helps "  in this case :
	  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> help()

Online Documentation

     help(topic, package = c(.packages(),.Autoloaded), lib.loc = .lib.loc)

     ?topic

Arguments:

   topic: a name or character string on which documentation
          is sought (but not a variable containing a charac-
          ter string!).


	..................

	..................

Examples:

     help()
     help(help)              # the same

     help(lapply)
     ?lapply                 # the same

     help("for")             # or ?"for", but the quotes are needed
     ?"+"


Martin Maechler <maechler@stat.math.ethz.ch>			<><
Seminar fuer Statistik, ETH-Zentrum SOL G1;	Sonneggstr.33
ETH (Federal Inst. Technology)	8092 Zurich	SWITZERLAND
phone: x-41-1-632-3408		fax: ...-1086
http://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/~maechler/
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