[Rd] argument srt for mtext(); was: [R] using text on the x axis ticks rather than numbers

[Uwe Ligges]

Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
> On Tue, 7 Sep 2004, Adaikalavan Ramasamy wrote:
> 
> 
>>Out of curiosity, why is srt not respected in mtext ? See examples below
> 
> 
> It doesn't make a lot of sense.  mtext is about putting text on >m<argin
> lines, and even the ability to have text perpendicular to the axis (via
> las) is rather awkward to interpret (and the interpretation will be
> changed in 2.0.0).  If you are going to rotate text you need to able to
> specify a point of rotation and that's much easier via text.
> 
> 
>>It would be nice to have 'srt' as an argument in mtext in future.
> 
> 
> You haven't been listening to the discussions pre-2.0.0 on the semantics
> of `adj' (and now padj as well) in mtext.  Experts seem to find it hard to
> keep even the two current cases (parallel and perpendicular) clear in
> their minds.


[moved to R-devel]

The discussions took place on R-devel, hence some people might not have 
noticed them.

Indeed, I think it is possible to provide an srt command (e.g. in half a 
year for something like R-2.1.0). What is expected for "srt = 0"?
a) the current behaviour, i.e. srt=0 in respect to the las setting *and* 
the margin side to plot the text in, or
b) always horizontally drawn text?

I'd vote for b).

Uwe


> BTW, if you want to use srt with mtext(at=) you can always use S ....
>