Hi, Martin Maechler <maechler <at> stat.math.ethz.ch> writes:
> > So I did open a new subject and move the discussion to R-devel > now. > > >>>>> "MM" == Martin Maechler <maechler <at> stat.math.ethz.ch> > >>>>> on Mon, 24 Jul 2006 11:46:05 +0200 writes: > > >>>>> "Gabor" == Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendieck <at> gmail.com> > >>>>> on Sun, 23 Jul 2006 09:02:35 -0400 writes: > > Gabor> Looking at the diff.POSIXt code we see the problem is > Gabor> that it takes the length of the input using length > Gabor> which is wrong since in the case of POSIXlt the > Gabor> length is always 9 (or maybe length should be defined > Gabor> differently for POSIXlt?). > > MM> Though I agree with Spencer that a user may expect > MM> length() to behave differently, but I don't think this > MM> would be a good idea. Yes, length() is generic, but its > MM> help() emphasizes that for lists, length() should be the > MM> number of list elements. Of course anyone one *can* > MM> define length() methods that behave differently for > MM> his/her classes, but then one would also want to make > MM> sure that e.g. x[length(x)] or 'x[length(x)] <- value' > MM> works and -- in a case of simple S3 class built on a > MM> list, would work differently than if x was a the simple list. I think that having generic for POSIXlt would be more natural than default length, which is (as stated by Gabor) always 9. When I see a date or time with all additions I always think of it as one "element". So it would be naturaly that length() would return number of dates/times in POSIXlt object. Gregor ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel