lapply( *, names) -- bug ?!

On Fri, 23 Jul 1999 08:28:35 +0100 (BST), Prof Brian D Ripley <ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk> said:

>> This came on S-news
    >> 
    >> The more direct test being
    >> 
    >> sapply(c(a=1,b=2), names)
    >> 
    >> Problem:  
    >> R ("all" versions) 
    >> behaves the same as S+5.1, which is wrong IMO.
    >> 
    >> {since some might disagree,  I didn't yet post to R-bugs ..}

    BDR> I do.  the argument is not a list, and lapply applies to lists.
that was not the point;
lapply() and sapply() are supposed to coerce to list()
    BDR> So
    >> as.list(c(a=1,b=2))
    BDR> $a
    BDR> [1] 1

    BDR> $b
    BDR> [1] 2

    BDR> Fine. Note the names of the components are NULL.

Yes, exactly.  

And therefore lapply(*, names) {or sapply(..)} should return NULLs
as it does [in R and S+5.x].
I was wrong all along.
It seems I need a longer warm-up time for my brain today...

Martin
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
r-devel mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html
Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe"
(in the "body", not the subject !)  To: r-devel-request@stat.math.ethz.ch
_._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._