[Rd] autoload error in profile {was anova-bug in R-version 1.0.0?} (PR#470)

[maechler@stat.math.ethz.ch]

>>>>> "BDR" == Prof Brian D Ripley <ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk> writes:

    BDR> On Tue, 7 Mar 2000, Trenkler, Dietrich wrote:
    >> I think I've discovered what went wrong.
    >> 
    >> My workspace included a function wilcox.test formerly copied from
    >> ctest. Now ctest ist part of the distribution and because of that I
    >> always got the message:
    >> 
    >> [Previously saved workspace restored]
    >> 
    >> Error in autoload("wilcox.test", "ctest") :
    >> Object already exists
    >> 
    >> I didn't take care of this message. Now I removed wilcox.test, saved
    >> the WS, restarted R without the vanilla-option and alas, anova
    >> now works.
    >> 
    >> It seems that R stops initializing after encountering the error
    >> mentioned above. Is this correct?   

    BDR> Yes, in that the rest of the system Rprofile file is skipped
    BDR> and hence options show.signif.stars and show.coef.Pvalues are not set.
but other options as well..
I think this shouldn't happen and *is* a bug.

    BDR> It looks to me as if a bit more protection is needed in print.coefmat,
    BDR> at least.
In extrapolation, wouldn't all R functions using non-internal *)
options() {i.e. getOption() nowadays} need protection against these options
being wrong or non existent ?
I feel that this is exaggerated..

*) Currently, the following options are "internal"
   (i.e. changing them does some consistency checks in src/main/options.c):

   Option	       Requirements
   ------	       ------------
   width	       integer    MIN_WIDTH..MAX_WIDTH
   digits	       integer    MIN_DIGITS..MAX_DIGITS
   expressions	       integer    MIN_EXPRESSIONS..MAX_EXPRESSIONS
   editor	       character  {not NA nor character(0)}
   continue	       character  {not NA nor character(0)}
   prompt	       character  {not NA nor character(0)}
   contrasts	       character(2)
   warn		       numeric(1)
   warning.expression  expression or language
   error	       expression or language
   show.error.messages logical(1)
   echo		       logical(1)

------------

However, I wonder if we shouldn't do consistency checks on other options as
well,  e.g. na.action seems to be more important than the show.* ones ...

For the 1.0.x patches, at least, I'll move the autoload()'s to the end of
profile/Common.R

Martin Maechler <maechler@stat.math.ethz.ch>	http://stat.ethz.ch/~maechler/
Seminar fuer Statistik, ETH-Zentrum  LEO D10	Leonhardstr. 27
ETH (Federal Inst. Technology)	8092 Zurich	SWITZERLAND
phone: x-41-1-632-3408		fax: ...-1228			<><

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
r-devel mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html
Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe"
(in the "body", not the subject !)  To: r-devel-request@stat.math.ethz.ch
_._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._