[R] dumping data objects

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "WQM" == William Q Meeker <wqmeeker at iastate.edu>
>>>>>     on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:58:26 -0500 writes:

    WQM> While

    >> .deparseOpts(control="S_compatible")
    >> dump("foo")

    WQM> did not work as I had expected,

    WQM> dump("foo",control="S_compatible")

    WQM> did work OK.

yes,  "of course" (at least in hindsight).

Note that it's for a reason that  .deparseOpts  starts with a "." :
This is decades old style suggesting
   "typically not to be messed with by the user"

and indeed is only used to produce the correct binary code used
by the C internal dump() code,

  > .deparseOpts(control="S_compatible")
 [1] 128

as you had demonstrated in your first message.
Can you propose an amendment to the help page for dump(),
source at
  https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk/src/library/base/man/dump.Rd
which helps the user more clearly?


Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich