[R] Need Advice: Considering Converting a Package from S3 to S4

[Ben Bolker]

  I can see that fortune("S4") is going to produce more than one possible
response
soon ...  (is Achim Zeleis listening?)

   Ben


Frank E Harrell Jr wrote:
> 
> spencerg wrote:
>> Hi, Terry:
>> 
>>      Thanks for the comments.  I too vastly prefer S3 to S4.  Your 
> 
> Me too.  My summary is this:
> 
> If you love computer science more than you value your own time, use S4.
> 
> Frank Harrell
> 
>> comparison is based on much greater experience than mine.
>> 
>>      Could you please check the link you sent?  I couldn't get it to
>> work.
>> 
>>      Thanks again.
>>      Spencer
>> 
>> Terry Therneau wrote:
>>>  For 90 percent of what I do I strongly prefer the loose (S3) rather 
>>> than the rigid (S4) classes.  So I'm closer to Rolf.  My summary of S4 
>>> vs S3
>>>  
>>> A large increment in   1. nuisance to write
>>>   2. difficulty to debug
>>>   3. ability to write very obscure code   4. design
>>>   Gain
>>>   5. ability to direct automatic conversions
>>>   6. validate the contents of a class object
>>>     For simple objects 5 and 6 can be critical.  Consider a date for 
>>> instance, which will often be turned into a character, added or 
>>> subtracted as a numeric, plotted, etc.  Conversely, aspects of 1-4 are 
>>> less worrisome for a simple object, particularly #4: I have a 
>>> reasonable chance of "getting it right" the first time.
>>>     For a complex object such as the result of a coxph fit       fit 
>>> <- coxph(Surv(time, status) ~ age + sex + treatment)
>>>
>>> #5 makes no sense at all: as.numeric(fit)???  Number 4 and 6 are 
>>> really hard;
>>> after 15+ years of tuning I am still modifying the list of components 
>>> in a coxph object.  I know more about the computational aspects of Cox 
>>> models than almost anyone and still it's not enough.  Changes are 
>>> harder with rigid classes.
>>>
>>>   With reference to #3 above, for your amusement, look at
>>>      www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/98/May/straustrup.html
>>> the key line (to me) being "..every C++ programmer feels bound by some 
>>> mystic promise to use every damm element of the languange on every 
>>> project..."
>>>
>>> Terry T.
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide 
>>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>
>>>   
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chair           School of Medicine
>                       Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> 
> 

-- 
View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Need-Advice%3A-Considering-Converting-a-Package-from-S3-to-S4-tp24901482p24923159.html
Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.