[R] Workings of model.frame.default and [.

[Frank E Harrell Jr]

Thanks for your note Brian.  It does avoid the issue of whether what I reported is a bug in model.frame.default which needs fixing.  In my view it is.
 
I have to respectfully disagree that changing the baseset of an enumeration type is a bad idea.  To me it is the most natural approach for most of the analyses I do, i.e., I don't want "placeholders" for omitted categories in graphs or models.  And I will plead yet again for a global option to allow this.  As such an option would not be turned on by default for [.factor, it will not possibly hurt anyone who doesn't want to use it.  Even when the option is turned on, the number of checks that would have to be made in R-base is minimal (model.frame.default being the prime one, because model.frame.default oddly depends on levels not changing when the data frame is subsetted).

I think it's possible that the new operation in 1.6 will cause more problems than what I'm requesting.  The scoping rules of R currently and naturally allow users to override functions.  Still I would prefer not to override basic functions if an alternative (global option) exists.

Thanks for listening,

Frank


On Tue, 30 Jul 2002 12:18:44 +0100 (BST)
Prof Brian D Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk> wrote:

> This is really a question of S language design.  A factor is an enumeration
> type, and there are many good reasons why one does not change the baseset
> of an enumeration type.  (Indeed a lot of errors have stemmed from a
> failure to check that the enumeration set is used consistently.)
> 
> The view is that global options which allow departures from the existing
> language specification are a very bad idea.  Not only would R-core need to
> devise checks for all the base code under the all possible sub-languages,
> but so would all the package contributors.  And users would get confused
> as code became unreproducible.
> 
> As from 1.6.0, redefining base functions will have a much more limited
> effect, being ignored when called from any function in base (and any other
> function in a namespace).
> 
> 
> On Tue, 30 Jul 2002, David Kane  <David Kane wrote:
> 
> > Frank E Harrell Jr writes:
> >
> > > Thanks again, and I'll put in one more plug for [.factor to be modified so
> > > that if a system option 'drop.unused.levels' is TRUE (i.e., NOT by default)
> > > drop=TRUE is assumed unless drop=FALSE is explicitly stated by the user.
> > > Then I can dispose of my local [.factor once and for all.
> >
> > I'll second this notion. Although a wiser man than I would hesitate to comment
> > on the relationship between R-core and Professor Harrell, it would seem a nice
> > thing for R-core to do to "Welcome Aboard" Professor Harrell to the land of R,
> > given his many contributions (Hmisc, Design, et cetera) to the S language over
> > the years.
> >
> > Of course, there is probably some deep design issue why this is hard to do or
> > some (obvious) statistical reason why one would not want R to provide this much
> > "rope" to unsophisticated users. If so, I would enjoy being educated about the
> > issues involved.
> 
> People hang themselves if provided with rope ....
> 
> > In my own small corner of the world, I would use such an option. One of the
> > biggest complaints that my colleagues have about dataframes is precisely this
> > behavior. It was also one of my own biggest confusions when starting with S+.
> >
> > Just my 2 cents,
> >
> > Dave Kane
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> 
> -- 
> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
> Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272860 (secr)
> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
> 
> 


-- 
Frank E Harrell Jr              Prof. of Biostatistics & Statistics
Div. of Biostatistics & Epidem. Dept. of Health Evaluation Sciences
U. Virginia School of Medicine  http://hesweb1.med.virginia.edu/biostat
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