[R] Variable passed to function not used in function in select=... in subset

[Wacek Kusnierczyk]

Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>
> but I think R is stuck with what it has due to compatibility and the large
> base of users yet its still possible to add functions in packages or new
> functions to R so a new variant of subset would be possible in which
> case one could decide to use the new function in place of the old one.
>   

you're probably correct.

but then it might be worth asking whether carrying on with misdesign for
backward compatibility outbalances guaranteed crashes in future users'
programs, which result in confused complaints, the need for responses
suggesting hacks to bypass the design, and possibly incorrect results
published because r is likely to do everything but what the user expects.

r suffers from early made poor decisions, but then this in itself is not
a good reason to carry on.

vQ