I want to give users of a gWidgets gui access to the R help pages. Below is a minimal example with two approaches that does not work. Both lines of codes work directly in the R command window (RGui in Windows). R version 3.1.0
Update: Implemented suggestion from jverzani (button 3). It works! Thanks! If you post it I can mark it as the accepted answer.
library(gWidgets)
gui <- function(){
w <- gwindow(title="Access help pages", visible=TRUE)
help1_btn <- gbutton(text="Help 1 (don't work)", container=w)
addHandlerChanged(help1_btn, handler = function(h, ...) {
# Open help page for function.
with(globalenv(), help(matrix, package = base))
print("PRESSED HELP 1!")
} )
help2_btn <- gbutton(text="Help 2 (don't work)", container=w)
addHandlerChanged(help2_btn, handler = function(h, ...) {
# Open help page for function.
help(matrix, package = base)
print("PRESSED HELP 2!")
} )
help3_btn <- gbutton(text="Help 3 (works!)", container=w)
addHandlerChanged(help3_btn, handler = function(h, ...) {
# Open help page for function.
print(help("matrix", help_type="html"))
print("PRESSED HELP 3!")
} )
}
As jverzani suggested it works to print the output of help (see my updated question for a complete example):
print(help("matrix", help_type="html"))