[Rd] :: and ::: as .Primitives?

[Peter Haverty]

Hi all,

When S4 methods are defined on base function (say, "match"), the
function becomes a method with the body "base::match(x,y)". A call to
such a function often spends more time doing "::" than in the function
itself.  I always assumed that "::" was a very low-level thing, but it
turns out to be a plain old function defined in base/R/namespace.R.
What would you all think about making "::" and ":::" .Primitives?  I
have submitted some examples, timings, and a patch to the R bug
tracker (https://bugs.r-project.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=16134).
I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Regards,
Pete

____________________
Peter M. Haverty, Ph.D.
Genentech, Inc.
phaverty at gene.com