compress defaults for save() and save.image()
Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
I have changed the default in save() to compress = !ascii. This seems quite safe, as almost always save() is called explicitly and people will appreciate that it might take a little time to save large objects (and depending on your system, compression could even be faster).
I'm in favor of such a change. I almost always explicitly set `compress = TRUE'. When I don't use it, it's because I want to be able to load large objects quickly and I've noticed that loading uncompressed workspaces can be quite a bit faster. Usually though, the savings in disk space is worth the small penalty in loading time.
Should we also change the default in save.image()? That is almost always used implicitly, via q(), a menu .... There are arguments that it is a more serious change so should not be done at the end of the release cycle, and also that large .RData files are something people would want to avoid.
I rarely use `save.image()' except to occasionally dump data during a long run for crash recovery purposes. I don't think changing the defaults would make a difference to me.
BTW, the defaults can be changed via options() (see ?save): has anyone ever found that useful?
I was not even aware of this!
And whilst I am feeling curious, has anyone used save(ascii = TRUE) in recent years?
I don't think I've ever used this feature. -roger
Roger D. Peng | http://www.biostat.jhsph.edu/~rpeng/