From ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk  Wed Feb  9 00:05:20 2005
From: ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk (Prof Brian Ripley)
Date: Wed Feb  9 00:05:30 2005
Subject: [Rd] Re: Packages and Libraries (was: Re: lme4 "package" etc
In-Reply-To: <XFMail.050208221946.Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
References: <XFMail.050208221946.Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.61.0502082254160.19433@gannet.stats>

On Tue, 8 Feb 2005 Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk wrote:

[...]

> But, a propos, is there an R entity called a "library"
> (other than the command) as distinct from a "package"?

Yes.  That is what the argument 'lib.loc' to library() and other functions 
refers to.

A 'library' is a collection of packages stored in one directory.

library("pkg") means `go to one or more libraries, find package pkg and 
load it up'

In S parlance what in R is a `package' is a `library section' or 
(latterly) also `chapter'.

In English usage a library is a collection of volumes, not of recipes or 
stories or articles.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595


[Rd] Re: Packages and Libraries (was: Re: lme4 "package" etc
Prof Brian Ripley