[Rd] pos.to.env and sys.xxx documentation (PR#801)

[Peter Dalgaard BSA]

pperkins@ucsd.edu writes:

> Full_Name: peter perkins
> Version: 1.2.0
> OS: linuxppc
> Submission from: (NULL) (24.4.89.36)
> 
> 
> i'm assuming that these are shortfalls in the documentation, and not bugs
> in the function themselves.
> 
> 1) the help page for pos.to.env gives two examples:
> 
>    Examples:
> 
>      pos.to.env(1)
>      pos.to.env(length(search()))
> 
> the second of these returns NULL which (to me) does not seem to fit
> the description of the function.  an explanation of why this seems
> to be a special case would be helpful.

This is correct. The NULL environment is at the end of the search list
(also known as "package:base"). It is a feature not very much loved by
me, but a feature nevertheless. In this environment, objects are bound
directly to symbols rather than stored in a hash structure.

> 3) the sys.xxx help page says:
> 
>    The parent of a function evaluation is the environment in which
>    the function was called. It is not necessarily one less than the
>    frame number of the current evaluation, nor the environment from
>    which it is called.
> 
> i think the first sentence ought to read "the environment in which the
> function was declared".  unless there is some syntactic subtlety that
> makes the environment "in which [it] was called" different from the one
> "from which [it] is called".

Close, but it's the *second* sentence that needs to be changed... 

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph: (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard@biostat.ku.dk)             FAX: (+45) 35327907
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