[Rd] Optimization in R

[hadley wickham]

On 8/7/07, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
> Those are small parts of the calculation, not the whole thing.  The
> original point was that optim() is a very thin wrapper around the code
> to do the optimization.  I just don't see a need to make it more
> complicated so it can be used to wrap other methods.  Authors of new
> optimization methods can just create new functions, following the
> pattern set by optim(), and it will be easier for almost everyone.

Another alternative would be to describe a common interface to
optimisation functions (like the modelling functions).  Otherwise it
becomes a hassle to switch in and out different functions because they
each have slightly different interfaces (eg. clustering and
classification algorithms).

Hadley