Hi,
iff is shorthand typically used in mathematical proofs. You have
probably found the one group (users of R) that have the highest
probability of knowing the meaning of "iff". That said, I agree that
it should not be used in official documentation. It should be
replaced with "if and only if" if it was not just a typo to begin with.
Kevin
On Aug 18, 2006, at 8:48 AM, Gregor Gorjanc wrote:
> Hin-Tak Leung wrote:
>> Gregor Gorjanc wrote:
>>> Hello!
>>>
>>> There is a tiny typo in list.Rd.
>>>
>>> Index: R/src/library/base/man/list.Rd
>>> ===================================================================
>>> --- ../man/list.Rd (revision 38909)
>>> +++ ../man/list.Rd (working copy)
>>> @@ -59,7 +59,7 @@
>>> inconsistent with functions such as \code{\link
>>> {as.character}}, and is
>>> for efficiency since lists can be expensive to copy.)
>>>
>>> - \code{is.list} returns \code{TRUE} iff its argument
>>> + \code{is.list} returns \code{TRUE} if its argument
>>>
>>
>> Those are not typo's - (there are two "iff"'s in that paragraph).
>> "iff" is a short-hand for "if and only if", in some culture.
>
> OK, I did not know that and I appologize for making noise on the list
> for this. However, I wonder how many people know this? It is fine to
> have some short-hands (as IMHO, RTFM, etc. in e-mails), but these
> can be
> an obstacle for exact understanding of the documentation, specially
> for
> non-english users.
>
> --
> Lep pozdrav / With regards,
> Gregor Gorjanc
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> University of Ljubljana PhD student
> Biotechnical Faculty
> Zootechnical Department URI: http://www.bfro.uni-lj.si/MR/ggorjan
> Groblje 3 mail: gregor.gorjanc <at> bfro.uni-lj.si
>
> SI-1230 Domzale tel: +386 (0)1 72 17 861
> Slovenia, Europe fax: +386 (0)1 72 17 888
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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