From ihaka@stat.auckland.ac.nz  Thu Aug  5 23:30:31 1999
From: ihaka@stat.auckland.ac.nz (Ross Ihaka)
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 10:30:31 +1200
Subject: cbind is not generic as claimed, omits labels where S has them (PR#239)
In-Reply-To: <x2lnbp7uey.fsf@blueberry.kubism.ku.dk>; from Peter Dalgaard BSA on Fri, Aug 06, 1999 at 12:08:05AM +0200
References: <199908051128.NAA28801@pubhealth.ku.dk> <19990806095312.A15303@stat1.stat.auckland.ac.nz> <x2lnbp7uey.fsf@blueberry.kubism.ku.dk>
Message-ID: <19990806103031.A17464@stat1.stat.auckland.ac.nz>

On Fri, Aug 06, 1999 at 12:08:05AM +0200, Peter Dalgaard BSA wrote:
> Ross Ihaka <ihaka@stat.auckland.ac.nz> writes:
> 
> > I can see what the problem is - we don't have the generic dispatch
> > mechanism in place.  I will add it.
> > 
> > I think that the special casing of data frames is needed because this
> > appears to be the (undocumented) S behaviour.  A data frame anywhere in
> > the argument list causes the result to be a data frame.
> 
> I played around with this earlier today. There's nothing special about
> dataframes, S does the same with any classed object. I.e.
> 
> class(b)<-"my"
> cbind.my<-function(...)match.call()
> 
> cbind(a,b)
> 
> will dispatch cbind.my

Yetch!  What happens when there are conflicting classes I wonder.
[ Rhetorical question. ]

It sounds like this might make things easier.

	Ross
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cbind is not generic as claimed, omits labels where S has them (PR#239)
Ross Ihaka