[Rd] mysteriously persistent generic definition

[Martin Morgan]

Ross Boylan wrote:
> Originally I made a function yearStop that took an argument "object".  I
> made a generic, but later changed the argument to "x".  R keeps
> resurrecting the old definition.  Could anyone explain what is going on,
> or how to fix it?  Note particularly the end of the transcript below: I
> remove the generic, verify that the symbol is undefined, make a new
> function, and then make a generic.  But the generic does not use the
> argument of the new function definition.
> 
> <quote>
>> args(yearStop)
> function (obj) 
> NULL
>> yearStop <- function(x) x at yearStop
>> args(yearStop)
> function (x) 
> NULL
>> setGeneric("yearStop")
> [1] "yearStop"
>> args(yearStop)
> function (obj) 
> NULL
>> removeGeneric("yearStop")
> [1] TRUE
>> args(yearStop)
> Error in args(yearStop) : object "yearStop" not found
>> yearStop <- function(x) x at yearStop
>> setGeneric("yearStop")
> [1] "yearStop"
>> args(yearStop)
> function (obj) 
> NULL
> </quote>
> 
> R 2.7.1.  I originally read the definitions in from a file with ^c^l in

I don't see this behavior in R-2.9.2, or in the release candidate.

Martin

> ESS; however, I typed the commands above by hand.
> 
> Thanks.
> Ross Boylan
> 
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-- 
Martin Morgan
Computational Biology / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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