[R-wiki] Be careful of syntax!

Philippe Grosjean phgrosjean at sciviews.org
Wed Feb 1 13:19:51 CET 2006


Hello all,
Thanks a lot for your contributions. I know that a Wiki page is 
relatively free. However, please, note the following when adding pages 
(keep in mind that these pages will be examples for others)!

- Always use a H1 title (title level 1, using ====== Title 1 ====== (six 
equal signs) at the top of the page

- Sign just under (register, and you got thne convenient signature 
button at the far right of the button bar)

- Try to format R code as the implicit "R-Core Team formatting", in 
particular:
   + Forget about T/F and always use TRUE/FALSE
   + Forget about '=' for assignation ands always use '->'
   + Use spaces for clearer code in math operations, after commas, 
between the equal sign in named arguments, for instance:

f <- function(x, y, nam.rm = TRUE) {
     if (na.rm) {
         x <- na.omit(x)
         y <- na.omit(y)
     }
     x + log(y)^2 - y
}

   + Indent (use four spaces for each indentation instead of tabs, to 
make sure it is correct)
   + Bracket indentation should be as the example here above.
   + Use named arguments as much as possible, because it is more explicit)
   + Use meaningful variable names

- Try to write code directly executable in R in <code r></code> chunks. 
For instance:
<code r>
a <- 1:4
a  # [1] 1 2 3 4
</code>

is better than:
<code r>
 > a <- 1:4
 > a
[1] 1 2 3 4
</code>

and yet better than:
<code r>
a <- 1:4
a [1] 1 2 3 4
</code>

- Finally, note that there is quote mechanism in the Wiki, so that:

Mr X said:
 > This is what Mr X said

Mr Y answered:
 > This is the answer...
 > Even more Mr Y answer.

Best,

Philippe Grosjean



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