From maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch  Mon Mar 21 18:49:00 2005
From: maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch (Martin Maechler)
Date: Mon Mar 21 18:49:09 2005
Subject: [Rd] loadings generic?
In-Reply-To: <423D98B9.7050005@bank-banque-canada.ca>
References: <423D98B9.7050005@bank-banque-canada.ca>
Message-ID: <16959.2316.560057.121298@stat.math.ethz.ch>

>>>>> "PaulG" == Paul Gilbert <pgilbert@bank-banque-canada.ca>
>>>>>     on Sun, 20 Mar 2005 10:37:29 -0500 writes:

    PaulG> Can loadings in stats be made generic?

It becomes a (S4) generic automagically when you define an S4 method
for it.  ;-)

{yes, I know this isn't the answer you wanted to hear;
 but really, maybe it's worth considering to use S4 classes and
 methods ?}

For S3, it's a bit uglier, but I think you could still do -- in your
package --

if(!exists("loadings.default", mode="function")) {
  loadings.default <- loadings
  loadings <- function(x, ...) UseMethod("loadings")
}

loadings.<myclass> <- function(x, ...) {
   ......... 
}

and S3-export these.

Martin


[Rd] loadings generic?
Martin Maechler