Re: Re: Fast Access to Installed Packages
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg98419] Re: [mg98368] Re: Fast Access to Installed Packages
- From: John Fultz <jfultz at wolfram.com>
- Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2009 05:56:07 -0400 (EDT)
- Reply-to: jfultz at wolfram.com
On Wed, 8 Apr 2009 05:01:40 -0400 (EDT), David Bailey wrote: > David Park wrote: > >> I like to have fast ways to access a package documentation. One thing >> that would be helpful is if the 'Add-Ons and Packages' and 'Standard >> Extra Packages' were actually on the drop down Help menu list so we >> didn't have to go through the documentation center or type in the >> package name. I would use these much more than most of the other items >> on the menu. For example, why is 'Find Selected Function' on the menu >> list since we can do it much faster directly from a notebook? >> >> >> In lieu of that, I would like to put a command in a package such as >> 'PackageNameHelp' such that it it were evaluated it would bring up >> Version 6 documentation. >> >> >> I know how to do it for Version 5 Help Browser documentation. One uses: >> >> >> PacletManager`Package`helpBrowserLookup["packagename"]; >> >> >> But I don't know how to write such a statement for Version 6 >> documentation. >> >> >> Can anyone help? >> > > Yes, I have been hacking into the documentation system a bit in order to > document my DebugTrace package. You can load that by using: > > Documentation`HelpLookupPacletURI["DebugTrace"] > > This works for GUIKit and Quantum (my version is only partially > interfaced with the DC) - so I guess it is general. > > You can also pull up the documentation for a particular function, for > example > > Documentation`HelpLookupPacletURI["GUIKit/ref/CloseGUIObject"] > > David Bailey > http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk [Around the same time, I wrote...] > Once you have the paclet URI, you can programmatically bring up the help > for any page by doing, e.g.,... > > FrontEndExecute[ > FrontEnd`FrontEndToken["OpenHelpLink", {"guide/InstalledAddOns", > Automatic}]] I just thought I'd point out that my version actually calls the function Documentation`HelpLookup, which calls Documentation`HelpLookupPacletURI. The difference is that my solution use the same code used by "Find Selected Function" to attempt to reuse an existing help window rather than to always produce a new help window. If you're fine with always producing a new window, then David's solution is fine and unlikely to require any changes in future versions of Mathematica. Sincerely, John Fultz jfultz at wolfram.com User Interface Group Wolfram Research, Inc.