writing polygons/segments to shapefiles (.shp) or other ArCGIS compatible file

I am not sure a previous e-mail reached the list (no mail aknowledgement from R-boundle etc.). The question was how to write polygon
or segment coordinates into a shapefile set or any other ArcGIS supported format. The library shapefiles seems to do something but
the documentation is a bit beyond of my mind.... and I cannot get the meaning of the functions write**** and its application to the
case below:

In simple words, is there a somewhere a function taking polygon coordinates (or simple segments) within R to a "ready to read" set
of files ***.shp, ***.shx, etc...

Thanks in advance for any hint

Patrick



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Patrick Giraudoux" <patrick.giraudoux at univ-fcomte.fr>
To: "r-help" <r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch>
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 1:08 PM
Subject: writing polygons/segments to shapefiles (.shp)

Dear all,

The library maptools offers a fantastic support for shapefile reading.

Is there a R library available permitting the writing of polygon or segment coordinates into shapefile?

Thanks for any hint,

Patrick Giraudoux