[Rd] not a typo in list.Rd

Martin Maechler maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch
Fri Aug 18 15:43:21 CEST 2006


>>>>> "Gregor" == Gregor Gorjanc <gregor.gorjanc at bfro.uni-lj.si>
>>>>>     on Fri, 18 Aug 2006 14:48:40 +0200 writes:

    Gregor> Hin-Tak Leung wrote:
    >> Gregor Gorjanc wrote:
    >>> Hello!
    >>> 
    >>> There is a tiny typo in list.Rd.
    >>> 
    >>> Index: R/src/library/base/man/list.Rd
    >>> ===================================================================
    >>> --- ../man/list.Rd      (revision 38909)
    >>> +++ ../man/list.Rd      (working copy)
    >>> @@ -59,7 +59,7 @@
    >>> inconsistent with functions such as \code{\link{as.character}}, and is
    >>> for efficiency since lists can be expensive to copy.)
    >>> 
    >>> -  \code{is.list} returns \code{TRUE} iff its argument
    >>> +  \code{is.list} returns \code{TRUE} if its argument
    >>> 
    >> 
    >> Those are not typo's - (there are two "iff"'s in that paragraph).
    >> "iff" is a short-hand for "if and only if", in some culture.

    Gregor> OK, I did not know that and I appologize for making noise on the list
    Gregor> for this. However, I wonder how many people know this? 

I think I'd like to keep fostering a culture where this is
known.  It's such a beatiful useful short concise language element.
If you don't know,  nowadays there's Wikipedia where you can
find it.

    Gregor> It is fine to have some short-hands (as IMHO, RTFM,
    Gregor> etc. in e-mails), but these can be an obstacle for
    Gregor> exact understanding of the documentation, specially
    Gregor> for non-english users.

I knew what 'iff' means many years before I knew any of the
above (and any other) e-mail acronyms, .... But that just shows
how old I am....

Martin



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