From p.connolly at hortresearch.co.nz  Thu Apr 24 10:28:49 2003
From: p.connolly at hortresearch.co.nz (Patrick Connolly)
Date: Wed Apr 23 23:30:59 2003
Subject: [Rd] Re: Default value for title in postscript()
In-Reply-To: <16038.17970.797442.963291@gargle.gargle.HOWL>
References: <20030422220800.GF14368@hortresearch.co.nz>
	<16038.17970.797442.963291@gargle.gargle.HOWL>
Message-ID: <20030423212849.GI14368@hortresearch.co.nz>

On Wed, 23-Apr-2003 at 09:52AM +0200, Martin Maechler wrote:

|> 
|> [ This really should have gone to R-devel instead of R-help.
|>   I'm now diverting -- and please leave off "R-help" when replying again.
|> ]
|> 
|> >>>>> "PaCo" == Patrick Connolly <p.connolly@hortresearch.co.nz>
|> >>>>>     on Wed, 23 Apr 2003 10:08:00 +1200 writes:

|>     PaCo> My question is: What is the tidiest way of doing such
|>     PaCo> a thing?  Should I make a private function that calls
|>     PaCo> the standard postscript function, 
|> 
|> yes, your own function calling the standard high-level postscript(),
|> not some low-level {.Internal(), .Call(), .C() or .For..... } --
|> these all may be changed "without notice" !}
|> 
|>     PaCo> or should I go the whole hog and make an S4 type method to handle it?
|> 
|>     PaCo> Or would it be simpler for the standard function to be changed
|> 
|> certainly simpler for you.. ;-)
|> 
|> I tend to agree that a change might be useful --
|> For the new default, I'd actually go further and propose
|> something like (when file = "Rplots.ps")
|> 
|>    "Rplots.ps [from R 1.7.0]"

Sounds like a good idea though I always specify a file name myself.

|> 
|>     PaCo> (assuming, of course, there aren't good reasons
|>     PaCo> against doing that)?
|> 
|> Unfortunately, there's a good reason: back-compatibility.
|> In spite of that, I do advocate a change.

In general, back-compatibility is important, but in this case, who
would be inconvenienced by not having the same '%%Title:' line in all
their postscript files?  Someone more experienced might be able to
imagine a case.  I can't.

I was toying with the idea of setting up a perl script that would run
through all my postscript files and change the %%Title: line so I can
tell what file I'm looking at with ghostview.  It won't be necessary
with any new ones, so I'll probably do some of the other things I
haven't got round to instead.

best

-- 
Patrick Connolly
HortResearch
Mt Albert
Auckland
New Zealand 
Ph: +64-9 815 4200 x 7188
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
I have the world`s largest collection of seashells. I keep it on all
the beaches of the world ... Perhaps you`ve seen it.  ---Steven Wright 
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[Rd] Re: Default value for title in postscript()
Patrick Connolly