R devel - Aug 2005 - Typo(s) in proc.time.Rd and comment about ?proc.time (PR#8092)

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 Weigand.Stephen at mayo.edu wrote:
> I just downloaded the file
>
> ftp://ftp.stat.math.ethz.ch/Software/R/R-devel.tar.gz
>
> and within proc.time.Rd, the second paragraph of the \value
> section contains a typo:
I believe your understanding of the English language is different from the 
author here, who is English.  (You on the other hand seem to think there 
is no need to give your country in your address when writing an addess in 
Denmark.)  The preferred language for R documentation is English (and not 
American).
> The resolution of the times will be system-specific; it is common for
> them to be recorded to of the order of 1/100 second, and elapsed [...]
>                     ^^^^^
>
> I'd say replacing "to of" with just "of" would
grammatically
> fix the sentence.
I'd say it was correct and your correction is incorrect.  In English we 
say `recorded to 1/100th of a second', not `recorded 1/100th second'.
> Second, the \note{} section for Unix-like machines reads:
>
> It is possible to compile \R without support for \code{proc.time},
> when the function will throw an error.
>
> I believe this is ungrammatical and suggest replacing
> "when the function will throw an error" with "in which
> case the function will throw an error".
Again, the statement given is the intended meaning.
> Finally, my comment about ?proc.time is that if across
> platforms the returned value is in seconds, then it might
> be helpful to readers if this were noted explicitly in the
> first paragraph of \value{}.
Yes, *if*.  Do you know that?
> My suggestion is in brackets:
>
> A numeric vector of length 5, containing the user, system, and
> total elapsed times [in seconds] for the currently running R
> process [...]
>
> Thank you,
>
> Stephen
>
> ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> Stephen Weigand
> Division of Biostatistics
> Mayo Clinic Rochester
> Phone (507) 266-1650, fax 284-9542
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>
>
-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595

ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk wrote:
> On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 Weigand.Stephen at mayo.edu wrote:
> > I just downloaded the file
> >
> > ftp://ftp.stat.math.ethz.ch/Software/R/R-devel.tar.gz
> >
> > and within proc.time.Rd, the second paragraph of the \value
> > section contains a typo:
> I believe your understanding of the English language is different from the 
> author here, who is English.  (You on the other hand seem to think there 
> is no need to give your country in your address when writing an addess in 
> Denmark.)  The preferred language for R documentation is English (and not 
> American).
> > The resolution of the times will be system-specific; it is common for
> > them to be recorded to of the order of 1/100 second, and elapsed [...]
> >                     ^^^^^
> >
> > I'd say replacing "to of" with just "of" would
grammatically
> > fix the sentence.
> I'd say it was correct and your correction is incorrect.  In English we
> say `recorded to 1/100th of a second', not `recorded 1/100th
second'.
The correction was incorrect, but so was the original.  I've never
heard the expression "of the order of"; common usage (in English or
American, as far as I know) is "on the order of".  Your "recorded
to
1/100th of a second" is also ok.
> > Second, the \note{} section for Unix-like machines reads:
> >
> > It is possible to compile \R without support for \code{proc.time},
> > when the function will throw an error.
> >
> > I believe this is ungrammatical and suggest replacing
> > "when the function will throw an error" with "in which
> > case the function will throw an error".
> Again, the statement given is the intended meaning.
I think more clear might be, "it is possible to compile R without
support for proc.time, when the function *would* throw an error".

-- Dave