[R] Does anyone.... worth a warning?!? No warning at all

[Rolf Turner]

On 20/08/2007, at 9:54 PM, Tom Willems wrote:

> dear Mathew
>
> mean is a Generic function
>
> mean(x...)
>
> in wich x is a data object, like a  data frame a list a numeric  
> vector...
>
> so in your example it only reads the first character and then  
> reports it.
>
> try x = c(1,1,2)
> mean(x)

	I think you've completely missed the point.  I'm sure Mathew now  
understands the syntax
	of the mean function.  His point was that it would be very easy for  
someone to use this
	function incorrectly --- and he indicated very clearly *why*, by  
giving an example using max().

	If mean() could be made safer to use by incorporating a warning,  
without unduly adding to
	overheads, then it would seem sensible to incorporate such a  
warning.  Or to change the
	mean() function so that mean(1,2,3) returns ``2'' --- just as max 
(1,2,3) returns ``3'' --- as
	Mathew *initially* (and quite reasonably) expected it to do.

				cheers,

					Rolf Turner

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