[Rd] Re: Default value for title in postscript()

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Wed, 23 Apr 2003, Martin Maechler wrote:

> 
> [ This really should have gone to R-devel instead of R-help.
>   I'm now diverting -- and please leave off "R-help" when replying again.
> ]
> 
> >>>>> "PaCo" == Patrick Connolly <p.connolly at hortresearch.co.nz>
> >>>>>     on Wed, 23 Apr 2003 10:08:00 +1200 writes:
> 
>     PaCo> I like the fact that the postscript function enables
>     PaCo> the possbiility of a more useful title than before.
>     PaCo> However, I'd prefer the default to be the file name.
> 
>     PaCo> It's very simple for me to make my own postscript
>     PaCo> function that does just that simply by setting title =
>     PaCo> file.  I always use onefile = TRUE, so it always works
>     PaCo> (so far).  However, I'm a little reluctant to do that
>     PaCo> in case some future changes cause conflicts.  I've
>     PaCo> been warned off tinkering with .Internal
> 
>     PaCo> My question is: What is the tidiest way of doing such
>     PaCo> a thing?  Should I make a private function that calls
>     PaCo> the standard postscript function, 
> 
> yes, your own function calling the standard high-level postscript(),
> not some low-level {.Internal(), .Call(), .C() or .For..... } --
> these all may be changed "without notice" !}
> 
>     PaCo> or should I go the whole hog and make an S4 type method to handle it?
> 
>     PaCo> Or would it be simpler for the standard function to be changed
> 
> certainly simpler for you.. ;-)
> 
> I tend to agree that a change might be useful --
> For the new default, I'd actually go further and propose
> something like (when file = "Rplots.ps")
> 
>    "Rplots.ps [from R 1.7.0]"
> 
>     PaCo> (assuming, of course, there aren't good reasons
>     PaCo> against doing that)?
> 
> Unfortunately, there's a good reason: back-compatibility.
> In spite of that, I do advocate a change.

I'm lost here!

Most people don't care what the title is, and I left it as previous
versions gave.  Why would anyone want the title in the file to default to 
the file name, which in any case defaults to something anodyne?

There's a general R principle here: the person who does the work gets to 
choose the details.  Patrick: if you had submitted a comprehensive patch, 
you might have got to choose!

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595