R devel - May 2003 - axis() default values for "lty", "lwd", and "col"

Hi,

I would like to recommend a minor modification in axis() which I believe 
can simplify the making of plots for publications. I am trying to define 
default values for par() in order to make labels bigger and lines thicker, 
so that the resulting plots look good when resized for publication 
purposes. I ran into the following problem...

axis() does not use par() values as default for "lty",
"lwd", and "col".
Here is an example.

par(lty=2,lwd=3,col="blue")
plot(1,1,bty="n",axes=F)
axis(1)
axis(2)

Because axis() doesn't use the par() values, I have to explicitely define 
the parameters "lty", "lwd", and "col" in my
axis() calls. It would make
sense if axis() used the par() values by default.

Hence, I recommend this simple fix in the axis() function([...]) statement 
in order to have axis() read the par() values for "lty",
"lwd", and "col".

axis <- 
function (side, at = NULL, labels = TRUE, tick = TRUE, line = NA,
    pos = NA, outer = FALSE, font = NA, vfont = NULL, lty =
par("lty"),
    lwd = par("lwd"), col = par("col"), ...)
{ [...] }

I use R1.7.0 on Red Hat Linux 7.2.

Sincerely,
Jerome Asselin

-- 

Jerome Asselin (J?r?me), Statistical Analyst
British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
St. Paul's Hospital, 608 - 1081 Burrard Street
Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA V6Z 1Y6
Email: jerome@hivnet.ubc.ca
Phone: 604 806-9112   Fax: 604 806-9044

I believe this to be deliberate.  If I do

par(lty=2,lwd=3,col="blue")
plot(1:10)

I do not want the axes to be thick, dotted and blue, with black labels.
(It is also I suspect deliberate that

plot(1:10,lty=2,lwd=3,col="blue")

does not pass any of those parameters on to axis().)

You say you made the labels bigger: to do that you needed to set cex.axis 
and cex.main, not cex.

I'm afraid this change would break a lot of existing code.  I am aware 
that S-PLUS does this (with blue labels too), and I have always found it
irritating to have to work around it.


On Tue, 20 May 2003, Jerome Asselin wrote:
> I would like to recommend a minor modification in axis() which I believe 
> can simplify the making of plots for publications. I am trying to define 
> default values for par() in order to make labels bigger and lines thicker, 
> so that the resulting plots look good when resized for publication 
> purposes. I ran into the following problem...
> 
> axis() does not use par() values as default for "lty",
"lwd", and "col".
> Here is an example.
> 
> par(lty=2,lwd=3,col="blue")
> plot(1,1,bty="n",axes=F)
> axis(1)
> axis(2)
> 
> Because axis() doesn't use the par() values, I have to explicitely
define
> the parameters "lty", "lwd", and "col" in my
axis() calls. It would make
> sense if axis() used the par() values by default.
> 
> Hence, I recommend this simple fix in the axis() function([...]) statement 
> in order to have axis() read the par() values for "lty",
"lwd", and "col".
> 
> axis <- 
> function (side, at = NULL, labels = TRUE, tick = TRUE, line = NA,
>     pos = NA, outer = FALSE, font = NA, vfont = NULL, lty =
par("lty"),
>     lwd = par("lwd"), col = par("col"), ...)
> { [...] }
> 
> I use R1.7.0 on Red Hat Linux 7.2.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Jerome Asselin
> 
> 
-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley@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