Just in case others (like me) don't instantly know what this is about. This only affects the html help. Compare the HTML index page for the base package "graphics"
https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-patched/library/graphics/html/00Index.html with the index page for the base package "grDevices" https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-patched/library/grDevices/html/00Index.html The latter is split by first letter, the former isn't as it only lists 98 <= 100 help pages. I don't really have a preference for either (but I also rarely use the html help system). Using a threshold seems reasonable to avoid blowing up the index of a small package like "splines" but provide some anchors for a large package like "stats". 50 may be too low as a threshold. Looking at package "parallel" with its 45 entries https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-patched/library/parallel/html/00Index.html the listing doesn't seem long enough to benefit from alphabetic sectioning. Probably a matter of taste. Best regards, Sebastian Am 29.06.21 um 13:07 schrieb Marsh, Samuel: > ?Hi, > > > I would like to suggest a single line (2 characters) fix that I feel would > greatly improve the readability and usefulness of the overview R package > help/manual pages. Currently the overall help/manual page for a package is > organized into alphabetized table of contents with linked headers by letter > only if the package contains more than 100 functions, otherwise the functions > are simply listed with no line breaks. This makes for a more difficult user > experience with moderately sized packages 50-99 functions that could be > improved. I would suggest changing the threshold for creating this > alphabetized table of contents to 50 instead of 100. > > > I've provided info on the current code that specifies this parameter below: > > It would appear that all that needs to be changed is the "> 100" parameter on > this line: > https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/80a7ca3b605b34d207ed3465c942f39a37e89f6e/src/library/tools/R/install.R#L2770 > > > Or to list the code directly: > > In the .writePkgIndices function the line is: > use_alpha <- (nrow(M) > 100)? > > > It appears to me the only change needed would be to set "nrow(M) > 50". I > believe this very small fix would greatly improve user experience for a > growing number of moderately-sized packages whose manual/help pages would > still greatly benefit from greater readability/organization. > > > Thank you! > > Sam > > > -- > Samuel E. Marsh, Ph.D. > Postdoctoral Fellow > Laboratory of Dr. Beth Stevens > F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Research Center > Boston Children's Hospital > Harvard Medical School > samuel.ma...@childrens.harvard.edu > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
