[R] question mle again

[Joshua Wiley]

On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 9:40 AM, Bert Gunter <gunter.berton at gene.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 9:21 AM, Joshua Wiley <jwiley.psych at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> When a function cannot find a variable inside its own environment, it
>> will look to its parent environment.
>
>
> This is false. It will "look to" its **enclosing environment" /
> "enclosure" . See
> ?environment

Thank you for the correction, Bert.  I had always interpreted:

"If one follows the 'parent.env()' chain of enclosures back far
 enough from any environment, eventually one reaches the empty
 environment."

to mean the parent environment was basically synonymous with the
enclosure.  I re-read ?environment, but I think I am still missing
something, so if I may ask a follow up question, would you explain or
suggest additional places to look for when/how is the the parent
environment distinct from the enclosing environment?

Thanks,

Josh
>
> (Note: This is fundamental to R scoping)
>
> -- Bert
>
> --
> Bert Gunter
> Genentech Nonclinical Biostatistics