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Message-ID: <530BC313.7030601@princeton.edu>
Date: 2014-02-24T22:09:23Z
From: Chris Sims
Subject: Error  gdata and gplots packages
In-Reply-To: <21259.30574.835845.838044@max.nulle.part>

On 02/24/2014 11:46 AM, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:
> Elodie,
>
> There is no error. Those are warning messages telling you that functions are
> masked -- just as it says. No more, no less.
>
> Amicalement,  Dirk
>
In case an explanation of what "masking" or "masquer" is:

Suppose I write

 > sin <- function (x) "transgression"

This puts a sin() function on the workspace that "masks" the standard 
sin() function.  Now I can invoke the sin()
function with the result below

 > sin(2)
[1] "transgression"

The original sin() function is part of the base package, so I can still 
invoke it by

 > base::sin(2)
[1] 0.9092974

Or I can get rid of my new sin() function, in which case the old one 
pops back up:

 > rm(sin)
 > sin(2)
[1] 0.9092974

When you define your own function interactively that masks a function 
already on the workspace, there is no
error message.  But when you load a package that masks functions on the 
workspace, you get a warning.