[Rd] A possible improvement to apropos

[Seth Falcon]

Martin Maechler <maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch> writes:

> Hi Seth,
> Could you live with typing 'i=T' (i.e.  ignore.case=TRUE)?

I can live with my ~/.Rprofile, I suppose.  :-)

> In principle, I'd like to keep the default  as ignore.case=FALSE,
> since we'd really should teach the users that R 
> *is* case sensitive.
> Ignoring case is the exception in the S/R/C world, not the rule

Let me try to argue why I think the default should be case
insensitive.

   This is a _search_ function.  If you aren't even sure what
   something is called, how can you expect to know how it will be
   capitalized?  Making search functions less likely to return what
   the user is looking for seems quite odd to me.

   Learning what functions are available has higher precedence, IMO,
   than being reminded about case sensitivity.  Imagine a user hoping
   to find 'getClass' that doesn't always remember case-sensitivity
   rules:
   
       apropos("class")  
       ## Doesn't find the function at all.
       ## Writes a message to R-help without reading the posting guide

       APROPOS("class")
       ## user: "oh, that looks like what I want"
       getclass("foo")
       ## user: "why didn't it work?" ... "ah, maybe I have to spell
       ## it exactly"
       getClass("foo")
       ## happy user

   Remember, the _results_ will be displayed in proper case and a
   common next step (should be) to read the man page and possibly try
   an example -- especially if a first attempt fails.

Have I made any progress?

Regards,

+ seth