On 28 Apr 2016, at 10:00 , Martin Maechler <maech...@stat.math.ethz.ch> wrote:
>>>>>> Randall Pruim <rpr...@calvin.edu> >>>>>> on Sun, 17 Apr 2016 13:54:28 +0000 writes: > >> I see that the sigma() function has recently been introduced into R 3.3. >> The help for sigma() says: >> Extract the estimated standard deviation of the errors, the “residual >> standard deviation” (misnomed also “residual standard error”, e.g., in >> summary.lm()'s output, from a fitted model. > >> Is there any reason not to fix the mis-naming of residual standard error now >> too? Both functions are in the stats package. It seems odd for one >> function in the package to point out an issue with another, especially when >> fixing it would only affect displayed output and not the rest of the API. > > Yes, there is a reason, believe it or not, it is called "tradition". > > 1) The tradition of some/many(?) statistics text books who use the same > misnomer > 2) The "tradition" of S+ (S, S-PLUS) before R and R ever since, > with its output re-printed in lecture notes and other text books. > > For that reason I did not dare to change it in print.summary.lm(), > even though I could have been one of the few to change it at a time > when are was still in its infancy and (years *before* it got to > version 1.0.0 on Feb.29, 2000). You may want to Google "Standard error of the estimate" (and weep...) -pd -- Peter Dalgaard, Professor, Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark Phone: (+45)38153501 Office: A 4.23 Email: pd....@cbs.dk Priv: pda...@gmail.com ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
