help files for load and related functions
Patches to the help files sound like a good idea. However, it isn't something I'm likely to get to immediately. I'm hoping that some other nice person will volunteer. Pat
Duncan Murdoch wrote:
On 12/17/2007 6:00 AM, Patrick Burns wrote:
I recently had a discussion with a user about loading and attaching in R. I was surprised that the help files don't provide a very clear picture. From my point of view 'load' and 'attach' are very similar operations, the difference being that 'attach' creates a new database on the search list while 'load' puts all the objects into the global environment. The help file for 'load' is inexplicit that this is what happens. The 'load' and 'attach' help files neither refer to the other in their See Also. Furthermore, the 'library' help file talks about "loading" packages. I would suggest that it should use "attaching" as that is the analogous operation. None of these three help files (nor that of 'save') has a Side Effects section. Personally I think that all help files should have a Side Effects section (to make it clear to new users what side effects are and that they are not a good thing for most functions to have). I can understand there could be another point of view on that. However, I definitely think that there should be a Side Effects section in the help files of functions whose whole point is a side effect.
I think you make good points. Care to submit patches? The source for those man pages are in https://svn.R-project.org/R/trunk/src/library/base/man/attach.Rd https://svn.R-project.org/R/trunk/src/library/base/man/library.Rd https://svn.R-project.org/R/trunk/src/library/base/man/load.Rd https://svn.R-project.org/R/trunk/src/library/base/man/save.Rd If you send them to me before Thursday or after Jan 2, I'll take a look. (If you send them to me during the Xmas break there's a good chance they'll get lost.) Duncan Murdoch