[R] Problem with scoping a variable value

[Philippe Grosjean]

Paul Roebuck wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Feb 2006, Tolga Uzuner wrote:
> 
> 
>>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 ?
> 
> 
> You didn't spell out the logical value 'FALSE' which may
> be causing your problem. Consider this alternative also...
> 
> richardson.grad <- function(func,
>                             x,
>                             d = 0.01,
>                             eps = 1e-4,
>                             r = 6,
>                             verbose = getOption("verbose")) {
>     ## do some things
>     if (verbose) {
>          cat("\n", "first order approximations:", "\n")
>          print(a.mtr, 12)
>     }
>     ## do more things and return
> }

This is definitely the best solution, and Paul is right: you have to use 
  FALSE in preference to F (FALSE is a reserved word, F is not in R).

Now, you should know that show() *is* a generic function (it is the 
default method for S4 objects), and it is a very bad idea to use it as 
named argument for functions. I would suggest to use Paul's suggestion 
instead, or to change it as 'show.it = FALSE', as a minimum.
Best,

Philippe Grosjean