[R] Bug in "is" ?

[Rolf Turner]

On 25/09/2008, at 12:42 AM, Martin Maechler wrote:

	<snip>

> [And, yes, if you think further and are wondering:
>  If we'd design things from scratch, we would only have S4
>  classes and "double" would be a proper class and
>  "numeric" would be the class union of {"integer", "double"}
> ]

	<snip>

	Well thank God you didn't design things from scratch,
	otherwise we'd all be constrained to use the abomination
	of S4 classes which make programming effectively impossible
	unless you are a genius of the order of John Chambers or
	Doug Bates or Martin Maechler.

	Most of us are not such geniuses and are equipped only with
	ordinary human minds to which S4 classes and methods are
	incomprehensible.  Even geniuses have trouble with them.
	A mate of mine, whom I consider to be one of the smartest guys
	in whole *universe* says he can't understand the damned things
	either.  And that's saying something.

	If we were forced to use S4 classes and methods, I don't think
	I'd be an R user.  At least I wouldn't --- couldn't --- program
	in R and would therefore be restricted to using only the facilities
	that come out of the box.  Which kind of defeats the purpose of R.

		cheers,

			Rolf

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