argument srt for mtext(); was: [R] using text on the x axis ticks rather than numbers
Marc Schwartz wrote:
On Wed, 2004-09-08 at 03:13, Uwe Ligges wrote:
Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
On Wed, 8 Sep 2004, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
On Wed, 8 Sep 2004, Uwe Ligges wrote:
[...]
Indeed, I think it is possible to provide an srt command (e.g. in half a year for something like R-2.1.0). What is expected for "srt = 0"? a) the current behaviour, i.e. srt=0 in respect to the las setting *and* the margin side to plot the text in, or b) always horizontally drawn text? I'd vote for b).
That's easy, see the precedent in
BTW, if you want to use srt with mtext(at=) you can always use S ....
S ignores las if at= is set, so srt=0 is the current default behaviour.
Sorry, I garbled that. In S, srt=0 is horizontal whatever side=, and las is always ignored. Not that that is documented AFAICS, and it is hard to remember .... [...]
Since S is different for mtext() anyway: We can say that adjustment is determined automatically by las + side, as it already is, and has to be adapted by the user if required. Uwe
Perhaps this is because I have only had one cup of coffee so far this morning, but is the bias at this point towards making the change or not making the change? I'm a little confuzzled...
As Brian already pointed out, you are not the only "confuzzled" one ...
at least one of the other "confuzzled" people here has not decided
anything yet. ;-)
If someone is going to force a decision and convinces me, I'll probably
try to provide a patch.
The most problematic point (mentioned by Brian Ripley) is the automatic
settings of the "adj" and "padj" values (related to reading direction,
as of R-2.0.0 alpha). Both have good defaults for parallel and
perpendicular text (related to axis) now, but what happens if srt is
set, and in particluar what happens if
(srt %% 90) != 0
My suggestion is to use the default settings for *adjustment* ("adj" and
"padj") derived from "las" and "side" as usual - even if *rotation* is
no longer derived from "las" and "side".
Uwe
If it is towards making the change, I would vote for an explicit 'srt' to override 'las' as per Uwe's option "b" and Prof. Ripley's last comment. That would seem to me to be quite logical at first glance. In either case, as a possible option, I could draft some text for a FAQ on this issue of rotated axis labels, since it seems to get asked often, and send it to Kurt. Let me know. Marc