[Rd] Re: Packages and Libraries (was: Re: lme4 "package" etc

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Tue, 8 Feb 2005 Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk wrote:

[...]

> But, a propos, is there an R entity called a "library"
> (other than the command) as distinct from a "package"?

Yes.  That is what the argument 'lib.loc' to library() and other functions 
refers to.

A 'library' is a collection of packages stored in one directory.

library("pkg") means `go to one or more libraries, find package pkg and 
load it up'

In S parlance what in R is a `package' is a `library section' or 
(latterly) also `chapter'.

In English usage a library is a collection of volumes, not of recipes or 
stories or articles.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595