[R] Names of Greek letters stored as character strings; plotmath.

[William Dunlap]

> I think though that the concepts involved are really truly subtle

I don't think the concepts are "truly subtle"; it is essentially the
difference between things and names of things (and names are
also things).   However, we have muddied the waters by providing
"convenience" functions like library() and help() and some plotmath
constructs that try to cover up the difference between a thing and
its name. 

Bill Dunlap
Spotfire, TIBCO Software
wdunlap tibco.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rolf Turner [mailto:rolf.turner at xtra.co.nz]
> Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2012 4:40 PM
> To: Robert Baer
> Cc: William Dunlap; r-help
> Subject: Re: [R] Names of Greek letters stored as character strings;plotmath.
> 
> On 21/05/12 10:53, Robert Baer wrote:
> 
> <SNIP>
> >
> >
> >
> > This discussion has been exceedingly helpful, sort of.
> >
> > Every time I try to do a task involving this I read the documentation
> > for bquote(), expression(), plotmath(), etc.,  over and over, and I
> > still fail to get the big picture of how R parses things under the
> > hood.  Typically, I only succeed each time by frustrating trial and
> > error.   Can I ask how you guys got a handle on the bigger (besides
> > your usual brilliance <G>)?
> >
> > Is there more comprehensive documentation in the developer literature
> > or is there a user wiki that you would recommend for those who never
> > quite get the big picture?  If not, this would be a worthy topic for
> > an R Journal article if someone has knowledge and the time to do it.
> > Wish I were knowledgeable enough to do it myself.
> 
> Amen.  My experience/reaction exactly.
> 
> I think though that the concepts involved are really truly subtle and it may
> be difficult for the brilliant guys to explain them in such a way that
> those of
> us who are less brilliant can understand them.
> 
>      cheers,
> 
>          Rolf