[R] Labelling curves on graphs

[(Ted Harding)]

Hi Folks,
I'd be grateful for good suggestions about the following.

I'm plotting a family of (X,Y) curves (for different levels
of another variable, Z): say 6 curves in all but could be
more or less -- it's a rather variables situation.

I'd like to label each curve with the value of Z that it
corresponds to.

The problem is that the layout (shapes, spacings, ranges
of X over which non-NA values of Y get plotted) of the curves
are very variable, and somewhat unpredictable beforehand.

Of course one could simply wait until the graph was done,
and then by hand position one's labels to the best effect.
That, given time, is on a certain sense the optimum solution.
But I'd like to be able to do a satisfactory job automatically,
and quickly!

This is the sort of problem already solved, in one particular
way, in contour(). But here the curves are broken at the labels
and the labels are centred on the curves (though nicely aligned
with the curves).

It might be satisfactory for me to place each label so that
its baseline is on its curve, thus without overlaying the
curve with the text. So maybe a "displaced" analogue of the
way contour() does it (including alignment of the text) may be OK.

Anothe possibility, for instance, is to draw lines from the ends
of the curves to antries in a plotted table of Z-values. This
could end up looking very untidym, though.

I grant that this is a vague query. I'm still trying to form a
clear view of how it ought to be approached; and I don't have
R code to refer to and experiment with (that of contour() is
hidden in its "method").

But people out there must have faced it, and I'd be grateful
for their own feedback from the coal-face!

With thanks,
Ted.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
Date: 16-Jul-08                                       Time: 21:17:13
------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------