Thank you all for your suggestions. My goal with this is to make
it as easy as possible for R users to find what they want in contributed
packages. A referee for our "R Journal" manuscript complained that
"RSiteSearch.function" was too much to type, suggesting we consider
masking "RSiteSearch". From the discussion, I do not see a strong
consensus for doing that. I like Romain's suggestion to shorten the
name further to, e.g., "web.search" or "doc.search". Another colleague
suggested "RSearch".
What do you think about renaming the current
"RSiteSearch.function{RSiteSearch}" to "RSearch{RSearch}"?
I'm happy to support the consensus of this group on a name (and
even enhancements) that seems likely to maximize its utility to R
users. I ask, because a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,
but one named "prettysweetsmellingthingamabob" might not sell as well.
Thanks,
Spencer
Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 12:13 PM, Duncan Murdoch <murd...@stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 1:58 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murd...@stats.uwo.ca>
wrote:
spencerg wrote:
Hello All:
What do you think of adding a function "RSiteSeach" to the package
of
that name, masking the "RSiteSearch" function in "utils", trapping any
call
RSiteSearch('searchstring', 'function') to the current
RSiteSearch.function
and passing all others to "utils:::RSiteSearch"? This was suggested by
a
referee to a manuscript on this new capability submitted to "R Journal".
The current version of this manuscript is available via
"system.file('doc',
'RSiteSearch.pdf', package='RSiteSearch')" if you have the "RSiteSearch"
package installed.
I suppose this depends on your long term plans for the function and
package.
If you think it should eventually replace the utils function, then it
makes
sense to use the same name: users won't get used to a new name in the
meantime. But if you think it will diverge from that function, then you
might as well pick a separate name now.
I disagree with Gabor about this being heavy handed, at least while it is
the only significant export in the package. If people don't want it,
don't
attach the package.
The last sentence only gives you a choice of clobbering the existing
function or not using it and that is not very nice. What is wanted is
both to be able to use it and allow it to coexist in a nice way.
It is essentially a rename of the existing one to utils::RSiteSearch. I
would only suggest this if RSiteSearch::RSiteSearch expanded on its
capabilities (which I think was Spencer's proposal), rather than replacing
them with something different.
How about R changing its RSiteSearch to be an S3 generic with the
main functionality being placed into RSiteSearch.default? Then
RSiteSearch.function can become RsiteSearch.character and
- RSiteSearch will give the new functionality when the package is
loaded and the old functionality if not.
- RSiteSearch.character can be used in place of RSiteSearch.function
to force only the new functionality (or an error if not present)
- RSiteSearch.default will give the old functionality whether or not the
package is loaded
(If there is a NAMESPACE then Its assumed here that both methods are
exported.)
How is that an improvement? Just replace your (RSiteSearch,
RSiteSearch.character, RSiteSearch.default) with (RSiteSearch,
RSiteSearch::RSiteSearch, utils::RSiteSearch) in my proposal and you get the
same behaviour. The point isn't that Spencer has invented a way for
RSiteSearch to handle character vectors, it already knows that. The point
is that he has enhanced it. Or maybe he has written something similar but
different, in which case he should pick a new name.
Duncan Murdoch
He simply renames it RSiteSearch.character (and possibly some other
changes depending on arguments). Then if the core cooperates
by making RSiteSearch a generic with a default method then everything
works as one would expect based on an understanding of S3.
No conflicts in names are involved.
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