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@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@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.
______________________________________________
R-help@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.
