Thank you to all who replied with helpful suggestions. I had to run off to meetings and talks for a bit so am now processing it all.
1. It turns out that the issue was not with coxme, but with bsdmatrix, a package that coxme calls. It just happens to have a function ismat() with the same general purpose and some similar variable names, which led me down the rabbit hole. That package contained a "class(x) == " flaw, now fixed. (The fact that bdsmatrix has been stable and unchanged for nearly a decade helped with the deception.) 2. As pointed out by Duncan and Kurt, the coxme function also had a class(x)== flaw. None of my test cases triggered this, but since 'x' is an argument that can be supplied by a user, it certainly would have happened in package use. Good catch. 3. Dirk gave good input about the flags in R CMD check and how to find them. One more line in the "Writing R Extensions" manual would have been helpful, namely that many of the options are NOT available in the options() command nor as arguments to R. As near as I can tell, there is no way to turn on these logic checks within a standard R session. A desire to do this is where I started: I would have set options(warn=2, error=recover) and found the actual offender in a few minutes; and never had to bother all you worthy readers. 4. I agree completely with Martin that errors like this should not be ignored. In fact, except for "variable may be used before initialized" messages from the C compiler, I have become grateful for EVERY complaint that comes out R CMD check. Notice the verb "have become" -- I did not start out so enthusiastic. Again, thanks for the help. Terry T. [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel