From rgentlem@jimmy.harvard.edu  Sat Aug  3 12:43:11 2002
From: rgentlem@jimmy.harvard.edu (Robert Gentleman)
Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2002 07:43:11 -0400
Subject: offset arg (was Re: [R] variable scope)
In-Reply-To: <x23ctwi3jo.fsf@biostat.ku.dk>; from p.dalgaard@biostat.ku.dk on Sat, Aug 03, 2002 at 01:29:15PM +0200
References: <Pine.LNX.4.31.0208031115300.7467-100000@gannet.stats> <x23ctwi3jo.fsf@biostat.ku.dk>
Message-ID: <20020803074311.X5720@jimmy.harvard.edu>

On Sat, Aug 03, 2002 at 01:29:15PM +0200, Peter Dalgaard BSA wrote:
> ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk writes:
> 
> > On 3 Aug 2002, Peter Dalgaard BSA wrote:
> > 
> > > Another example that has come back to haunt us several times is
> > > lm(...,data=d,offset=foo). The problem is that we want "foo" to be
> > > found inside "d" if present, but call-by-value semantics imply that it
> > > is an object in the caller's scope. You really ought to pass the name
> > > "foo" (or maybe better: quote(foo), or a formula ~foo).
> > 
> > Should we not just deprecate the offset argument in lm and glm?  Using the
> > offset() function in the formula works as one would expect (at least if
> > one remembers the R rules which start at the formula's environment).
> 
> That's a definite possibility, but what about subset (the argument,
> not the function) and weights? 
> 
> Not to mention pch and col in plot.formula et al. where vectorization
> led to some unexpected awkwardness.

 My intention was to include some discussion of just these issues in
 the 8 am session on the 17th.
 I hope that we can use some of these comments at that time as well.



> 
> -- 
>    O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
>   c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
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offset arg (was Re: [R] variable scope)
Robert Gentleman