[R] ylim problem in barplot

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "Ben" == Ben Bolker <bolker at ufl.edu>
>>>>>     on Thu, 5 Jan 2006 19:21:48 +0000 (UTC) writes:

    Ben> Robert Baer <rbaer <at> atsu.edu> writes:
    >> Well, consider this example:
    >> barplot(c(-200,300,-250,350),ylim=c(-99,400))
    >> 
    >> It seems that barplot uses ylim and pretty to decide things about the axis
    >> but does some slightly unexpected things with the bars themselves that are
    >> not just at the 'zero' end of the bar.
    >> 
    >> Rob

no, there's no pretty() involved.  
Maybe it helps you to just type box()
after the plot.  Simply, the usual par("mar") margins are set.

I think ___in conclusion___  that Marc Schwartz'  solution has been
right on target all along:

>>>>   Use 'xpd = FALSE' if you set 'ylim' because otherwise, the
>>>>   result may be confusing.

The real "problem" of barplot.default() is the fact that 
'xpd = TRUE' is the default, and AFAIK that's not the case
for other high-level plot functions.

One could debate if the default setting for xpd should not be changed to
  
   xpd = (is.null(ylim) && !horiz) || (is.null(xlim) && horiz)

Now this has definitely gotten a topic for R-devel, and not
R-help anymore.

    Ben> in previous cases I think there was room for debate about
    Ben> the appropriate behavior.  What do you think should happen
    Ben> in this case?  Cutting off the bars seems like the right thing
    Ben> to do; 

    Ben> is your point that the axis being confined to positive values (a side effect of setting ylim) is weird?

    Ben> Ben