[Rd] Antw: Re: "table(droplevels(aq)$Month)" in manual page of droplevels

[Ulrich Windl]

>>> Martin Maechler  schrieb am 13.04.2017 um 16:16 
>>> in
Nachricht <22767.34875.318482.421...@stat.math.ethz.ch>:
[...]
> Ulrich, please note that in the end this was all  because you're
> still learning to understand R (e.g., data frames !) better.

Hi!

I understood that I did not understand the example due to my lack of R 
knowledge. That is the point you made.
However I read a book on R, the introduction on R, and several tutorials on R, 
and I still never saw the use pattern presented in the example.
Thus I think my proposal to present more comprehensible examples is a valid 
one. Alternatively the introduction to R could be extended to a level that 
allows the user to understand the example presented.
Honestly there are many example I don't understand (plus descriptions that I 
hope to understand from the examples).
While I understand that R developers prefer to be left alone, not hearing about 
such issues, I think even R developers could benefit from hearing of beginner's 
problems.
Anyway R developers are free to forward messages to R-help if they think more 
appropriate for R-help.

> 
> As such this was completely inappropriate for R-devel and should
> have gotten to the R help list  R-help.

Regards,
Ulrich


> 
> With regards,
> Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich
[...]

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[Rd] Q: Windows/readline: missing history search

[Ulrich Windl]

Hello!

Ever since I used R on Windows (RGui) I am missing the ability to search the 
command history (Cntrl+R (reverse-search-history) in BASH, for example). Is 
there a particular reason for having this function disabled? Another feature 
would be word-wise delete (kill-word, backward-kill-word).

Probably being able to use the Alt-key as Meta key for readline (instead of 
activating menu entries) would be helpful. At least of the console window has 
the input focus.

Another nice feature would be PuTTY-like copying of selected text: It's 
sufficient to mark text in the console to have it put into the clipboard. In 
Rgui I need an explicit copy.

Finally I'd like if Rgui would remember the state of the MDI main window 
(maximized or not, maybe position and size also): Currently it always starts 
maximized.

Regards,
Ulrich

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[Rd] "table(droplevels(aq)$Month)" in manual page of droplevels

[Ulrich Windl]

The last line of the example in droplevels' manual page seems to be incorrect 
to me. I think it should read: "table(droplevels(aq$Month))". Amazingly (I 
don't understand) both variants seem to produce the same result (R 3.3.3):
---
> aq <- transform(airquality, Month = factor(Month, labels = month.abb[5:9]))
> aq <- subset(aq, Month != "Jul")
> table(aq$Month)

May Jun Jul Aug Sep 
 31  30   0  31  30 
> table(droplevels(aq)$Month)

May Jun Aug Sep 
 31  30  31  30 
> table(droplevels(aq$Month))

May Jun Aug Sep 
 31  30  31  30 
>
---
For the sake of learners, try to keep the examples simple and useful, even 
though you experts want to impress the newbees...

Ulrich

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[Rd] Downloader that Resolves library dependencies

[Ulrich Windl]

Hi!

If you want to install an extra library like "car", there is a long list of 
dependencies. If you just download "car", you cannot use it.
Unfortunately the download links offer no solution to select all dependent 
libraries for download also. It would be nice, however.
(This is interesting for people that want to use R in an Intranet that does not 
have Internet access)

Regards,
Ulrich

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[Rd] Poor documentation for "adj" and text()

[Ulrich Windl]

Hi!

(I'd like to be able to access your bugzilla, BTW)
The documentation for parameter "adj" of text() in R 3.3.3 is hard to 
understand (unless you know what it does already):

"adj 
one or two values in [0, 1] which specify the x (and optionally y) adjustment 
of the labels. On most devices values outside that interval will also work."

What is the meaning of the values? I think the description ("adj allows 
adjustment of the text with respect to (x, y). Values of 0, 0.5, and 1 specify 
left/bottom, middle and right/top alignment, respectively. The default is for 
centered text, i.e., adj = c(0.5, NA). Accurate vertical centering needs 
character metric information on individual characters which is only available 
on some devices. Vertical alignment is done slightly differently for character 
strings and for expressions: adj = c(0,0) means to left-justify and to align on 
the baseline for strings but on the bottom of the bounding box for expressions. 
This also affects vertical centering: for strings the centering excludes any 
descenders whereas for expressions it includes them. Using NA for strings 
centers them, including descenders.") should be moved to the parameter.

In general I'd suggest to describe the range, meaning and default of every 
parameter where the parameter is listed. "Details" should only give an overview 
of the functions.

Likewise "offset": Will the direction be influenced by "pos"? The description 
is quite silent on that.

Documentation should be structured to help the user to find the facts easily 
without having to read the whole page.

Regards,
Ulrich Windl

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