[R] Block comments in R?

Rolf Turner rolf at erdos.math.unb.ca
Mon Oct 9 00:57:52 CEST 2006


I must say I agree with Richard O'Keefe who wrote:

> I wrote:
>     R documentation comments really belong
>     in [.Rd] files where help() can find them.
> 
> Barry Rowlingson <B.Rowlingson at lancaster.ac.uk> replied:
> 	R documentation comments belong in .Rd files at the moment, but how 
> 	joyous would it be if they could be included in the .R files?
> 	
> How joyous?  About as joyous as a root canal job without anaesthetic.

				<etc.>
				<snip>

	(a) I don't speak Python and I don't believe I ever will; I'm
	not sure what Python does; I don't want to know.  R does what
	I want to do.  I don't want to have to learn Python syntax to
	do something with which I am very happy doing the R way
	currently.

	(b) Modularity is a ***Good Thing***.  Code should be code,
	documentation should be documentation.  They should click
	together but be kept separate.

	(c) The R documentation system is neat, efficient, well
	thought out, and well constructed.  It is an intrinsic part
	of the nature of R.  (It's one of the --- many --- reasons I
	like R better than Splus, which I no longer use.) Changing
	the R documentation system to something (Monty?) Pythonesque
	would change the nature of R and make it uglier.

				cheers,

					Rolf



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