[Rd] comment() and ls() / ls.str()

[François Pinard]

Hi, people.

After I revisited some older .RData files this evening, I came to 
consider that comment() might not be such a bad idea, after all! :-)

However, if I randomly visit such older files, it is unlikely that 
I remember which objects got a comment attribute and which do not.

It would be nice if ls.str() was automatically showing comments for the
objects it lists (with maybe some parameter to turn this capability 
off).  On the same vein, the more compact ls() output might use some 
device to at least inform the user that a comment is available.

I have no satisfying suggestion to offer about what would be the best 
way for ls() to yield this information.  (For example, suffixing listed 
names with an hash or asterisk would defeat functions using the produced 
list.)  Maybe someone else might have a good, clever, usable idea?

Fine enough, str() will show me the full comment.  However, users having 
to explicitly call str on all objects, or make (easy) equivalent stunts, 
is not fully in the spirit of a comment, which is to volunteer itself...

-- 
François Pinard   http://pinard.progiciels-bpi.ca