R: Produce Prototype of an R Documentation File

prompt {utils}

R Documentation

Produce Prototype of an R Documentation File

Description

Facilitate the constructing of files documenting R objects.

Usage

prompt(object, filename = NULL, name = NULL, ...)

## Default S3 method:
prompt(object, filename = NULL, name = NULL,
       force.function = FALSE, ...)

## S3 method for class 'data.frame'
prompt(object, filename = NULL, name = NULL, ...)

promptImport(object, filename = NULL, name = NULL, 
	importedFrom = NULL, importPage = name, ...)

Arguments

`object`	an R object, typically a function for the default method. Can be `missing` when `name` is specified.
`filename`	usually, a connection or a character string giving the name of the file to which the documentation shell should be written. The default corresponds to a file whose name is `name` followed by `".Rd"`. Can also be `NA` (see below).
`name`	a character string specifying the name of the object.
`force.function`	a logical. If `TRUE`, treat `object` as function in any case.
`...`	further arguments passed to or from other methods.
`importedFrom`	a character string naming the package from which `object` was imported. Defaults to the environment of `object` if `object` is a function.
`importPage`	a character string naming the help page in the package from which `object` was imported.

Details

Unless filename is NA, a documentation shell for object is written to the file specified by filename, and a message about this is given. For function objects, this shell contains the proper function and argument names. R documentation files thus created still need to be edited and moved into the ‘man’ subdirectory of the package containing the object to be documented.

If filename is NA, a list-style representation of the documentation shell is created and returned. Writing the shell to a file amounts to cat(unlist(x), file = filename, sep = "\n"), where x is the list-style representation.

When prompt is used in for loops or scripts, the explicit name specification will be useful.

The importPage argument for promptImport needs to give the base of the name of the help file of the original help page. For example, the approx function is documented in ‘approxfun.Rd’ in the stats package, so if it were imported and re-exported it should have importPage = "approxfun". Objects that are imported from other packages are not normally documented unless re-exported.

Value

If filename is NA, a list-style representation of the documentation shell. Otherwise, the name of the file written to is returned invisibly.

Warning

The default filename may not be a valid filename under limited file systems (e.g., those on Windows).

Currently, calling prompt on a non-function object assumes that the object is in fact a data set and hence documents it as such. This may change in future versions of R. Use promptData to create documentation skeletons for data sets.

Note

The documentation file produced by prompt.data.frame does not have the same format as many of the data frame documentation files in the base package. We are trying to settle on a preferred format for the documentation.

Author(s)

Douglas Bates for prompt.data.frame

References

Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) The New S Language. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.

Examples

require(graphics)

prompt(plot.default)
prompt(interactive, force.function = TRUE)
unlink("plot.default.Rd")
unlink("interactive.Rd")

prompt(women) # data.frame
unlink("women.Rd")

prompt(sunspots) # non-data.frame data
unlink("sunspots.Rd")


## Not run: 
## Create a help file for each function in the .GlobalEnv:
for(f in ls()) if(is.function(get(f))) prompt(name = f)

## End(Not run)

[Package utils version 4.4.1 Index]