"v.demart at libero.it" <v.demart at libero.it> writes:
> As an absolute beginner, still reading "Modern Applied Statistics with S" and exercising with its examples, I'm frequently stopped by what it looks to be R poor help system (or is it my gigantic ignorance?). I mean that using help many arguments of a command seems to be given for granted like for instance:
> ...............................
> ?lines
> lines(x, ...)
>
> ## Default S3 method:
> lines(x, y = NULL, type = "l", col = par("col"),
> lty = par("lty"), ...)
>
> Arguments:
>
> x, y: coordinate vectors of points to join.
>
> type: character indicating the type of plotting; actually any of
> the 'type's as in 'plot'.
>
> col: color to use. This can be vector of length greater than one,
> but only the first value will be used.
>
> lty: line type to use.
>
> ...: Further graphical parameters (see 'par') may also be supplied
> as arguments, particularly, line type, 'lty' and line width,
> 'lwd'.
> ................................
>
> How could I quickly know during an R-session what values should be "col" set to have red, how could I set "lty" etc.?
Well, you might take a hint and look at ?par, in which this is in fact
explained. The above text is not saying that very explicitly, I agree.
However, it could be a good idea if we found a nice way of integrating
this sort of tabular material in the help system. The case that really
annoys me is that to get at the vaæues for 'pch', you need to run
example(points), which is both nonobvious and disruptive if you are in
the middle of constructing a complex plot command.
--
O__ ---- Peter Dalgaard Blegdamsvej 3
c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics 2200 Cph. N
(*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen Denmark Ph: (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk) FAX: (+45) 35327907