[Bioc-devel] role of replaceSlots in BiocGenerics

[Hervé Pagès]

Hi,

Personally I like replaceSlots() better.

Not only because it's more readable but also the fact that you can use
initialize() to update an existing object is an undocumented feature so
I prefer to not rely on it.

Also initialize() is a generic and there could be a method defined for
the object you're trying to update that won't behave the way you expect
(e.g. the names of its arguments won't necessarily match the names of
the slots).

Also validation can be expensive and there are many situations where
you know that you're replacing the object slots with thiings that
don't break the object so I like that I can call replaceSlots() with
check=FALSE.

I actually wish the methods package had something like replaceSlots().

H.

On 09/06/2017 01:11 PM, Michael Lawrence wrote:
> No, the best practice is to just use initialize(). It used to be that
> replaceSlots() saved some copying, but that's no longer really the
> case. The only potential benefit is that it can skip validity checks,
> but usually you want those.
>
> Michael
>
> On Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 12:55 PM, Vincent Carey
> <stvjc at channing.harvard.edu> wrote:
>> Is this the preferred way of adjusting content in a
>> live object?  It is not accessible except via ":::"
>>
>>          [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>
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-- 
Hervé Pagès

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