[R] lme4_0.995-2/Matrix_0.995-4 upgrade introduces error messages (change management)

[Uwe Ligges]

White, Charles E WRAIR-Wash DC wrote:
> I'll address two issues. The first is today's error message and the other is change management for contributed packages on CRAN.
> 
> TODAY'S ERROR MESSAGE
> 
> I switched from the 0.995-1 versions of lme4 and Matrix to those referenced in the subject line this afternoon. Prior to using these packages on anything else, I applied them to code that 'worked' (provided numerical results with no error messages) under the previous set of packages. Since I can't provide the data, I realize this post may be of limited usefulness. Rightly or wrongly, I've regressed my R installation back to the 0.995-1 versions of lme4/Matrix... so I don't think that I continue to have a problem. 
> 
> R version 2.2.1, 2005-12-20, i386-pc-mingw32 
> 
> attached base packages:
> [1] "methods"   "stats"     "graphics"  "grDevices" "utils"     "datasets" 
> [7] "base"     
> 
> other attached packages:
>      lme4   lattice    Matrix 
> "0.995-2" "0.12-11" "0.995-4"
> 
> 
>>options(show.signif.stars=FALSE)
>>m1a<-lmer(cbind(prevented,control.count)~repellant+hour+(1|volunteer)+(1|date),
> 
> + family=binomial(link='probit'), method='Laplace')
> Error in dev.resids(y, mu, weights) : argument wt must be a numeric vector of length 1 or length 219
> 
>># probit doesn't converge
>>m1b<-lmer(cbind(prevented,control.count)~repellant+hour+(1|volunteer)+(1|date),
> 
> + family=binomial, method='Laplace')
> Error in dev.resids(y, mu, weights) : argument wt must be a numeric vector of length 1 or length 219
> 
>># logit is overdispersed
>>m1<-lmer(cbind(prevented,control.count)~repellant+hour+(1|volunteer)+(1|date),
> 
> + family=quasibinomial, method='Laplace')
> Error in glm.fit(X, Y, weights = weights, offset = offset, family = family,  : 
> 	NAs in V(mu)
> 
>>m2<-lmer(cbind(prevented,control.count)~hour+(1|volunteer)+(1|date),
> 
> + family=quasibinomial, method='Laplace')
> Error in glm.fit(X, Y, weights = weights, offset = offset, family = family,  : 
> 	NAs in V(mu)
> 
> CHANGE MANAGEMENT
> 
> Does CRAN keep old versions of contributed packages someplace? If not, the strategy I've implemented today is to maintain my own repository of contributed packages that I use. Stuff happens and change management is good.


Yes, old packages are in
   CRAN/src/contrib/Archive/
You have to compile them from source yourself, though.

Uwe Ligges


> Chuck
> 
> Charles E. White, Senior Biostatistician, MS
> Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
> 503 Robert Grant Ave., Room 1w102
> Silver Spring, MD 20910-1557
> 301 319-9781
> Personal/Professional Site: 
> http://users.starpower.net/cwhite571/professional/
> 
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