From antonio.fabio at gmail.com  Tue Jun 23 10:21:33 2009
From: antonio.fabio at gmail.com (Antonio, Fabio Di Narzo)
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:21:33 +0200
Subject: [Rd] V2.9.0 changes [Sec=Unclassified]
In-Reply-To: <42C7503E0B99F248B06BC65E7D2B4E020122C50FB1FD@EX2K7-CCR.AAD.GOV.AU>
References: <42C7503E0B99F248B06BC65E7D2B4E020122C50FB1FD@EX2K7-CCR.AAD.GOV.AU>
Message-ID: <b0808fdc0906230121n243072fbrd62cbe1614d13b50@mail.gmail.com>

Not a direct answer to your question, but...
You might consider using the R.oo package, from H. Bengtsson. It's
very stable, written in pure R, and cleanly allows you to do
pass-by-reference OO programming, with no tricks.

HTH,
af

2009/6/23 Troy Robertson <Troy.Robertson at aad.gov.au>:
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> Prefix: I am a frustrated Java coder in R.
>
>
>
> I am coding a medium sized ecosystem modelling program in R. ?I have changed to using S4 objects and it has cost me an order of magnitude in execution speed over the functional model. ?I cannot afford this penalty and have found that it is the result of all the passing-by-value of objects.
>
>
>
> I see that you can now safely inherit from environment in V2.9.0.
>
> That got me all excited that I would now be able to pass objects by reference.
>
>
>
> But...
>
> That doesn't seem to be the case.
>
> It only seem that passing an environment which holds the object allows for pass-by-reference and that passing an object which inherits from environment doesn't.
>
> Why is this the case, either an object inherits the properties of its parent or it doesn't.
>
> Has anyone else had a play with this? ?Or have I got it all wrong.
>
>
>
> I tried the below:
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> setClass('foo', representation=representation(stuff='list', bar='numeric'),
>
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? prototype=list(stuff=list(), bar=0),
>
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? contains='.environment')
>
>
>
> setGeneric('doit', function(.Object, newfoo='environment') standardGeneric('doit'))
>
>
>
> setMethod('doit', 'foo', function(.Object, newfoo){newfoo at bar <- 10})
>
>
>
> z <- new('foo')
>
>
>
> z at stuff$x <- new('foo')
>
>
>
> doit(z,z at stuff$x)
>
>
>
> z at stuff$x at bar
>
>
>
> [1] 0
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> Can anyone help with a better way of doing this.
>
> I'm trying to avoid all the indirection of packing and unpacking environments for passing.
>
>
>
>
>
> Thanks heaps
>
>
>
> Troy
>
>
>
>
>
> Troy Robertson
>
> Database and Computing Support Provider
>
> Southern Ocean Ecosystems, ERM/Fish
>
> Australian Antarctic Division
>
> Channel Highway, Kingston 7050
>
> PH: 03 62323571
>
> Troy.Robertson at aad.gov.au
>
>
>
>
> ___________________________________________________________________________
>
> ? ?Australian Antarctic Division - Commonwealth of Australia
> IMPORTANT: This transmission is intended for the addressee only. If you are not the
> intended recipient, you are notified that use or dissemination of this communication is
> strictly prohibited by Commonwealth law. If you have received this transmission in error,
> please notify the sender immediately by e-mail or by telephoning +61 3 6232 3209 and
> DELETE the message.
> ? ? ? ?Visit our web site at http://www.antarctica.gov.au/
> ___________________________________________________________________________
>
> ? ? ? ?[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>



-- 
Antonio, Fabio Di Narzo
Ph.D. student at
Department of Statistical Sciences
University of Bologna, Italy



[Rd] V2.9.0 changes [Sec=Unclassified]
Antonio, Fabio Di Narzo