[R] trying to use standard notation

[Andrew Gelman]

Hi, all.  In setting up my package for post-processing regression 
models, I am trying to use standard notation as much as possible:  thus, 
I use coef() to access estimated coefficients.  I wrote a function 
called se.coef() to grab standard errors, and se.fixef() and se.ranef() 
to grab se's from coefficients estimated from lmer().

I also need a function to access sigma-hat (the residual sd of the 
regression).  I've called this function sigma.hat(), but I'm open to 
using a better name if there's something more standard.

I also have a function called sim() that makes simulations using lm() or 
glm() output (based on the curvature of the likelihood function or, to 
put it another way, approximate Bayesian inference assuming a flat prior 
distribution).  sim() returns a list:  with two components:  (1) beta, a 
matrix of simulated coefficients (with dimension n.sims by k), and (2) 
sigma, a vector of simulated sigma's (with length n.sims).

I'll be doing more, but these are the basics for now.  I need to be able 
to pull these objects out as necessary.  And I just was wondering if 
anyone had suggested names for the functions that are more consistent 
with R naming conventions.

Thanks,
Andrew

-- 
Andrew Gelman
Professor, Department of Statistics
Professor, Department of Political Science
gelman at stat.columbia.edu
www.stat.columbia.edu/~gelman

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