[R-sig-dyn-mod] masked graphics:matplot (was: error attaching package deSolve)

[Thomas Petzoldt]

Hi Darin,

thanks for installing deSolve. The message that something is masked is 
normal intended behavior and NOT an error. It is not even a warning.

It just means that deSolve re-defines or extends the original behavior 
of function "matplot", to make it more user-friendly for deSolve 
objects. In case of package deSolve, "matplot" works as expected and 
users normally don't need to care about it, except another package 
introduces another incompatible redefinition. The notice makes you aware 
of this, so that you have the choice of trusting the package authors and 
just use:

matplot()

or if you don't trust them or in case of conflicting redefinitions from 
several loaded packages, you may consider to use:

graphics::matplot()

to get the original behavior.

Such redefinition/extension is sometimes unavoidable and in the interest 
of the user. Many other prominent packages do the same.

Regards,

Thomas


On 08.01.2016 16:30, Darin Perusich wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> Please bear with me, I'm a systems administrator helping an end user
> troubleshoot a problem.
>
> When attempting to load the deSolve library it's failing with the
> message 'The following object is masked from ‘package:graphics’:
> matplot', however the graphics library is loaded, (.packages()) lists
> it, see my output below. However if I manually load graphics and then
> deSolve it's loads without issue.
>
> Can anyone shed some light as to what might be causing this?
>
> R-base 3.2.2
> deSolve 1.13-1 installed via install.packages("deSolve",
> repos="http://R-Forge.R-project.org")
>
> The output that I'm seeing...
>
> linux-4on9:~> R
>
> R version 3.2.2 (2015-08-14) -- "Fire Safety"
> Copyright (C) 2015 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
> Platform: x86_64-suse-linux-gnu (64-bit)
>
> R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
> You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
> Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.
>
>    Natural language support but running in an English locale
>
> R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
> Type 'contributors()' for more information and
> 'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.
>
> Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or
> 'help.start()' for an HTML browser interface to help.
> Type 'q()' to quit R.
>
>> (.packages())
> [1] "stats"     "graphics"  "grDevices" "utils"     "datasets"  "methods"
> [7] "base"
>> library('deSolve')
>
> Attaching package: ‘deSolve’
>
> The following object is masked from ‘package:graphics’:
>
>      matplot
>
>> library('graphics')
>> library('deSolve')
>
> --
> Later,
> Darin


-- 
Dr. Thomas Petzoldt
Technische Universitaet Dresden
Faculty of Environmental Sciences
Institute of Hydrobiology
01062 Dresden, Germany

E-Mail: thomas.petzoldt at tu-dresden.de
http://tu-dresden.de/Members/thomas.petzoldt