With function, we can do
mcf <- myCoolFunction <- function(x)....
That creates a new function which is a copy of the old one. If one
of them changes later, the other won't change, so it's not really an
"alias".
The trouble with trying to do this with classes is that a class isn't
a simple thing in R. In S3, it's just a name that can be used in
lots of places. S4 is more structured, but still a class definition
is fairly spread out.
So you could probably write a function that tracked down and copied
all the pieces, but it's not easy.
With class, I define "clusterizedLongData", I want to use it with
the full name when I am writing my code, but I would like something
like cld when I make a demo, or when I try things on console... Is
it possible ?
Isn't it really the job of your text editor to make it easy to type
well chosen names? The GUIs in Windows and on the Mac can do name
completion, so you don't need a lot more typing for the long name
than the short one. As far as I know ESS can do the same, and there
are probably others too. If you're not using one of those, you
should be.
Duncan Murdoch