[Rd] Defaults for postscript()

[Prof Brian Ripley]

The defaults for postscript()

paper = "default"
onefile = TRUE
horizontal = TRUE

(it seems) date from the days when people used to used this to send plots 
directly to a postscript printer via print.it=TRUE.  I haven't done that 
for years, and it seems that our current generation of students don't even 
know the concept.  It seems 'horizontal = TRUE' is particularly difficult 
to grasp.

Given that I suspect almost all uses of postscript() are to produce plots 
to be viewed on-screen or incorporated into another document, a more 
appropriate set of defaults would be

width = 7, height = 7
paper = "special"
onefile = FALSE
horizontal = FALSE

which would have the advantage of using the same default aspect ratio for 
plots as all (?) other R graphics devices.

Does anyone see a reason not to change the defaults?

-- 
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