[R] Problem with scoping a variable value

[Tolga Uzuner]

Hi there,

I have a function which has a variable called show as an input:

richardson.grad <- function(func, x, d=0.01, eps=1e-4, r=6, show=F){
# do some things
   if(show) {

        cat("\n","first order approximations", "\n")       
        print(a.mtr, 12)


    }
#do more things and return
}

The show variable is being used as a flag to show intermediate results.

Interestingly enough, I have downloaded a package recently which defines 
the show variable as a function:

 > show
standardGeneric for "show" defined from package "methods"

function (object)
standardGeneric("show")
<environment: 01676F7C>
Methods may be defined for arguments: object

 >

Now, all of a sudden, the function I had defined earlier is scoping up 
to this new value, and is thus not working:

 > richardson.grad(function(x) x^2,2)
Error in if (show) { : argument is not interpretable as logical
 >

I could always redefine show in richardson.grad to be something else but 
something seems wrong: why is richardson.grad not looking up show's 
value in the  function ? How would I fix this ?

Thanks in advance,
Tolga