[Rd] visualizing data flow and function calls

[Robert M. Flight]

Hi All,

I don't know if such a thing exists, but I am looking for a way to
better keep track of where data is going, how it is being modified,
and what functions are acting upon it when I give the data over to a
function that calls many subfunctions (as happens in my current
package I am working on), or in an R script I am using to do multiple
processing steps on data. Currently I find it difficult to keep
straight sometimes what a function has done to my data, or what output
from another function is required now as input to my current internal
function as I navigate through my software (or when I make changes six
months later, and multiple objects are coming in).

>From what I can tell, I want to generate sequence diagrams of my
program (http://www.agilemodeling.com/artifacts/sequenceDiagram.htm).
Is there any way to generate these kinds of things automatically in R,
or to get the information easily from R? I know I could add code to
each function to spit out that it has been called with what input, but
I thought there might be a way to do it by calling the function within
some kind of wrapper function that would tell me what other functions
are being called.

I have tried searching for such a beast, but if it exists I cannot
seem to come up with the right search terms to find it.

Thanks in advance,

-Robert

Robert M. Flight, Ph.D.
University of Louisville Bioinformatics Laboratory
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY

PH 502-852-1809 (HSC)
PH 502-852-0467 (Belknap)
EM robert.flight at louisville.edu
EM rflight79 at gmail.com

Williams and Holland's Law:
       If enough data is collected, anything may be proven by
statistical methods.