[R] foruntes candidate?? WAS:Re: Bug in "is" ?

[Nordlund, Dan (DSHS/RDA)]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org 
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Charles C. Berry
> Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2008 4:31 PM
> To: Douglas Bates
> Cc: Wacek Kusnierczyk; Achim Zeileis; R help
> Subject: [R] foruntes candidate?? WAS:Re: Bug in "is" ?
> 
> 
> 
> Douglas Bates [after a tortuous discussion of the behavior of 
> is(7,"integer")]:
> 
> As for the question of the bug in "is", ... "it depends what your 
> definition of `is' is." [Bill Clinton]
> 

Ahh yes, what I referred to at the time as the Humpty Dumpty defense :-) after Lewis Carroll's "Through the looking glass." (chapter 5)

...
`I don't know what you mean by "glory",' Alice said. 

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. `Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"' 

`But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected. 

`When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.' 

`The question is,' said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.' 

`The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master -- that's all.' 


Dan

Daniel J. Nordlund
Washington State Department of Social and Health Services
Planning, Performance, and Accountability
Research and Data Analysis Division
Olympia, WA  98504-5204