[Rd] Update Packages / help.start() (PR#4681)

[len.weil at hs.utc.com]

Full_Name: Leonard Weil
Version: 1.8.0
OS: Windows2000 Pro
Submission from: (NULL) (192.249.47.9)


I have encountered two anomalies in version 1.8.0 that I had not observed in
version 1.7.0:

When using the menu Packages -> Update Packages from CRAN,
The console repeats the message twice (example below)

> update.packages()
trying URL `http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/1.8/PACKAGES'
Content type `text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1' length 12608 bytes
opened URL
downloaded 12Kb

lattice :
 Version 0.8-3 in C:/Program Files/R/rw1080/library 
 Version 0.8-7 on CRAN
Update (y/N)?  y
mgcv :
 Version 0.9-3.1 in C:/Program Files/R/rw1080/library 
 Version 0.9-5 on CRAN
Update (y/N)?  y
lattice :
 Version 0.8-3 in C:/PROGRA~1/R/rw1080/library 
 Version 0.8-7 on CRAN
Update (y/N)?  y
mgcv :
 Version 0.9-3.1 in C:/PROGRA~1/R/rw1080/library 
 Version 0.9-5 on CRAN
Update (y/N)?  y
trying URL `http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/1.8/lattice_0.8-7.zip'
Content type `application/zip' length 438509 bytes
opened URL
downloaded 428Kb

trying URL `http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/1.8/mgcv_0.9-5.zip'
Content type `application/zip' length 477360 bytes
opened URL
downloaded 466Kb

and indicates an error message (example below)
package  lattice lattice  successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
Error in file(file, "r") : unable to open connection
In addition: Warning messages: 
1: the condition has length > 1 and only the first element will be used in: if
(!file.exists(md5file)) return(NA) 
2: the condition has length > 1 and only the first element will be used in: if
(file == "") file <- stdin() else { 
3: only first element of `description' argument used 
4: cannot open file `lattice/DESCRIPTION'

The packages all work properly.  Message 4 appears with many updates.

When using help.start() to search for information, the references also appear
twice.
The example below uses lrm.fit from the Design package.
Design-internal 
Internal Design functions 
lrm.fit 
Logistic Model Fitter 
Design-internal 
Internal Design functions 
lrm.fit 
Logistic Model Fitter