[Rd] Re: [R] changing (core) function argument defaults?

[Thomas Lumley]

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004, Tony Plate wrote:

> Just to add to Thomas Lumley suggestion: it's generally a good idea to call a 
> wrapper function it by a different name.

This is generally good advice. However, if you want your graphics device 
started automatically when you plot, it either has to have the same name 
as the usual default device or you have to also set 
options(device="myX11")

 	-thomas

>						 This way, when you forget that you 
> have a wrapper function, you won't be puzzled by why the function doesn't 
> behave according to the documentation, and you won't embarrass yourself by 
> asking other people why there is a bug in R.  Also, if the function is called 
> programmatically by other functions, those usages might be depending upon the 
> standard defaults being in effect.  So, just do something like:
>
> myX11<-function(display="",width=2,height=2,...){
>   grDevices::X11(display=display,width=width,height=height,...)
> }
>
> -- Tony Plate
>
>> At Wednesday 05:18 PM 11/17/2004, Thomas Lumley wrote:
>> 
>> Restricted to r-devel (it is almost never appropriate to send the same 
>> message to both lists).
>> 
>> On Thu, 18 Nov 2004, RenE J.V. Bertin wrote:
>> >From: Patrick Connolly &lt;p.connolly at hortresearch.co.nz>
>> >To: &quot;RenE J.V. Bertin&quot; &lt;rjvbertin at hotmail.com>
>> >Subject: Re: [R] changing (core) function argument defaults?
>> >Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 11:43:10 +1300
>> 
>> >
>> >On Wed, 20-Oct-2004 at 07:48PM +0200, RenE J.V. Bertin wrote:
>> >
>> >|> Hello,
>> >|>
>> >
>> >|> Is it possible to change the defaults for the arguments to a
>> >|> function, without changing the function code itself?  I'm asking
>> >|> because I'd like to override the default dimensions and font family
>> >|> for a graphics device. Before 2.0.0, I'd just do that with a small
>> >|> edit in the appropriate .R file containing the device function
>> >|> definition. I appears to be possible no longer. So rather than
>> >|> copying the definition into my own .Rprofile, it would be nice if
>> >|> just the defaults could be modified...
>> >
>> >I didn't notice a response to this question.  I'd like to do something
>> >similar and haven't been able to work out how to do it.
>> 
>> You can write a wrapper
>> 
>> X11<-function(display="",width=2,height=2,...){
>>    grDevices::X11(display,width,height,...)
>> }
>> 
>> and put that into your Rprofile.
>> 
>>         -thomas
>> 
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-devel at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>
>

Thomas Lumley			Assoc. Professor, Biostatistics
tlumley at u.washington.edu	University of Washington, Seattle