R help - Apr 2010 - method dispatching vs inheritance/polymorphism

Hi,

I'm having trouble seeing the added value over functions defined by
setGeneric vis-a-vis
methods defined by inheritance and polymorphism. setGeneric offers a
'clean' call to a generic function, ie. no need to call new(), so less
typing to do for the user. But such explicit calls can also be avoided by
functions like f <- function(x, y) new(Class = SomeClass, x=x, y=y). Then
again, R relies heavily on method dispatching, so it must have clear advantages.

*confused* Can anybody enlighten me? Thanks in advance!

Cheers!!

Albert-Jan



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All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public
order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the
Romans ever done for us?

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