R devel - Feb 2008 - print.fitdistr buglet

Dear developers,

There's a small bug in print.fitdistr that can cause output to be printed
twice, but only if print is called explicitly:
> fit<-fitdistr(rt(1000,3),"t")
There were 11 warnings (use warnings() to see them)
> fit
        m             s            df
  -0.02181723    1.00145296    3.13723878
 ( 0.03865057) ( 0.03999447) ( 0.33298377)
> print(fit)
        m             s            df
  -0.02181723    1.00145296    3.13723878
 ( 0.03865057) ( 0.03999447) ( 0.33298377)
        m             s            df
  -0.02181723    1.00145296    3.13723878
 ( 0.03865057) ( 0.03999447) ( 0.33298377)

Most likely, the function print.fitdistr doesn't return the input invisibly.

Cheers,
Enrico

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On 09/02/2008 11:33 AM, Enrico Rossi wrote:
> Dear developers,
> 
> There's a small bug in print.fitdistr that can cause output to be
printed
> twice, but only if print is called explicitly:
> 
>> fit<-fitdistr(rt(1000,3),"t")
> There were 11 warnings (use warnings() to see them)
>> fit
>         m             s            df
>   -0.02181723    1.00145296    3.13723878
>  ( 0.03865057) ( 0.03999447) ( 0.33298377)
>> print(fit)
>         m             s            df
>   -0.02181723    1.00145296    3.13723878
>  ( 0.03865057) ( 0.03999447) ( 0.33298377)
>         m             s            df
>   -0.02181723    1.00145296    3.13723878
>  ( 0.03865057) ( 0.03999447) ( 0.33298377)
> 
> Most likely, the function print.fitdistr doesn't return the input
invisibly.
That's a correct analysis, but fitdistr is in MASS, so the report should 
go to Brian Ripley, the maintainer.  I've cc'd him.

I did a quick look through other print methods using this code:

for (name in methods("print")) {
   fn <- do.call("getAnywhere", list(name))$objs[[1]]
   body <- body(fn)
   len <- length(body)
   cat(name, ":  ", deparse(body[[len]]), "\n")
}

and turned up a few other cases in base packages; I'll fix them as 
appropriate.

Duncan Murdoch

On 09/02/2008 11:33 AM, Enrico Rossi wrote:
> Dear developers,
> 
> There's a small bug in print.fitdistr that can cause output to be
printed
> twice, but only if print is called explicitly:
> 
>> fit<-fitdistr(rt(1000,3),"t")
> There were 11 warnings (use warnings() to see them)
>> fit
>         m             s            df
>   -0.02181723    1.00145296    3.13723878
>  ( 0.03865057) ( 0.03999447) ( 0.33298377)
>> print(fit)
>         m             s            df
>   -0.02181723    1.00145296    3.13723878
>  ( 0.03865057) ( 0.03999447) ( 0.33298377)
>         m             s            df
>   -0.02181723    1.00145296    3.13723878
>  ( 0.03865057) ( 0.03999447) ( 0.33298377)
> 
> Most likely, the function print.fitdistr doesn't return the input
invisibly.
I've fixed a number of instances of this kind of thing in the base 
packages now.  A related kind of error I also fixed were print methods 
that returned an invisible NULL, or something other than what was 
printed.  I didn't touch the recommended packages.

These fixes are in R-patched now.

Duncan Murdoch