[External] anonymous functions
I don't disagree in principle, but the reality is users want shortcuts and as a result various packages, in particular tidyverse, have been providing them. Mostly based on formulas, mostly with significant issues since formulas weren't designed for this, and mostly incompatible (tidyverse ones are compatible within tidyverse but not with others). And of course none work in sapply or lapply. Providing a shorthand in base may help to improve this. You don't have to use it if you don't want to, and you can establish coding standards that disallow it if you like. Best, luke
On Mon, 7 Dec 2020, Therneau, Terry M., Ph.D. via R-devel wrote:
?The shorthand form \(x) x + 1 is parsed as function(x) x + 1. It may be
helpful in making code containing simple function expressions more readable.?
Color me unimpressed.
Over the decades I've seen several "who can write the shortest code" threads:
in Fortran, in C, in Splus, ... The same old idea that "short" is a synonym
for either elegant, readable, or efficient is now being recylced in the
tidyverse. The truth is that "short" is actually an antonym for all of
these things, at least for anyone else reading the code; or for the original
coder 30-60 minutes after the "clever" lines were written. Minimal use of
the spacebar and/or the return key isn't usually held up as a goal, but
creeps into many practiioner's code as well.
People are excited by replacing "function(" with "\("? Really? Are people
typing code with their thumbs?
I am ambivalent about pipes: I think it is a great concept, but too many of
my colleagues think that using pipes = no need for any comments.
As time goes on, I find my goal is to make my code less compact and more
readable. Every bug fix or new feature in the survival package now adds more
lines of comments or other documentation than lines of code. If I have to
puzzle out what a line does, what about the poor sod who inherits the
maintainance?
Luke Tierney
Ralph E. Wareham Professor of Mathematical Sciences
University of Iowa Phone: 319-335-3386
Department of Statistics and Fax: 319-335-3017
Actuarial Science
241 Schaeffer Hall email: luke-tierney at uiowa.edu
Iowa City, IA 52242 WWW: http://www.stat.uiowa.edu