R devel - Dec 2008 - How to add a slot to S4 class of an existing package?

Dear all,

Since my package is based on S4 classes, I would like to know how to add 
a slot to an existing S4 class without breaking the code of users of my 
package.

Assume the following S4 class:
setClass("MyClass",
   representation(name = "character",
                  type = "character",
                  data = "data.frame"
   ),
   prototype(name = "",
             type = "Default",
             data = data.frame(matrix(nr=0,nc=0))
   )
)#MyClass

Assume that a user has created an object:
 > myclass <- new("MyClass", name="MyName",
type="MyType", data=tmp)
 > str(myclass)


Now I would like to add another slot "info" to MyClass:
setClass("MyClass",
   representation(name = "character",
                  type = "character",
                  data = "data.frame",
                  info = "data.frame"
   ),
   prototype(name = "",
             type = "Default",
             data = data.frame(matrix(nr=0,nc=0)),
             info = data.frame(matrix(nr=0,nc=0))
   )
)#MyClass

Now when the user loads my package with S4 class MyClass containing a 
new slot and calls:
 > str(myclass)
Error in FUN(c("name", "type", "data",
"info")[[4L]], ...) :
  no slot of name "info" for this object of class "MyClass"
 >

My question is:
Is there any possibility or special trick, which would avoid this error 
message?

Are there other possibilities to access an additional data.frame from an 
existing class?

Is there something like an "evolution" of S4 classes, which 
distinguishes the different implementations of an S4 class, and allows 
the user to keep the object of an old class?

Best regards
Christian
_._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._
C.h.r.i.s.t.i.a.n   S.t.r.a.t.o.w.a
V.i.e.n.n.a           A.u.s.t.r.i.a
e.m.a.i.l:        cstrato at aon.at
_._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._

Dear Christian

this post from Martin Morgan on class versioning in Bioconductor's 
Biobase package might be relevant:
https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/bioc-devel/2006-May/000545.html
and also section 6 of this:
http://www.bioconductor.org/packages/2.4/bioc/vignettes/Biobase/inst/doc/BiobaseDevelopment.pdf

	Best wishes
	Wolfgang

----------------------------------------------------
Wolfgang Huber  EMBL-EBI  http://www.ebi.ac.uk/huber

cstrato wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> Since my package is based on S4 classes, I would like to know how to add 
> a slot to an existing S4 class without breaking the code of users of my 
> package.
> 
> Assume the following S4 class:
> setClass("MyClass",
>   representation(name = "character",
>                  type = "character",
>                  data = "data.frame"
>   ),
>   prototype(name = "",
>             type = "Default",
>             data = data.frame(matrix(nr=0,nc=0))
>   )
> )#MyClass
> 
> Assume that a user has created an object:
>  > myclass <- new("MyClass", name="MyName",
type="MyType", data=tmp)
>  > str(myclass)
> 
> 
> Now I would like to add another slot "info" to MyClass:
> setClass("MyClass",
>   representation(name = "character",
>                  type = "character",
>                  data = "data.frame",
>                  info = "data.frame"
>   ),
>   prototype(name = "",
>             type = "Default",
>             data = data.frame(matrix(nr=0,nc=0)),
>             info = data.frame(matrix(nr=0,nc=0))
>   )
> )#MyClass
> 
> Now when the user loads my package with S4 class MyClass containing a 
> new slot and calls:
>  > str(myclass)
> Error in FUN(c("name", "type", "data",
"info")[[4L]], ...) :
>  no slot of name "info" for this object of class
"MyClass"
>  >
> 
> My question is:
> Is there any possibility or special trick, which would avoid this error 
> message?
> 
> Are there other possibilities to access an additional data.frame from an 
> existing class?
> 
> Is there something like an "evolution" of S4 classes, which 
> distinguishes the different implementations of an S4 class, and allows 
> the user to keep the object of an old class?
> 
> Best regards
> Christian
> _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._
> C.h.r.i.s.t.i.a.n   S.t.r.a.t.o.w.a
> V.i.e.n.n.a           A.u.s.t.r.i.a
> e.m.a.i.l:        cstrato at aon.at
> _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel