R help - Jun 1997 - R-beta: Color specifications -- simple 'bg' / 'fg' swapping -- proposal

Consider the following example :

data(iris)
attach(iris)

par(bg = 'midnightblue', fg = 'yellow')
plot(Petal.Length, Petal.Width, main = "Fisher's iris data", sub =
"3 kinds")
##>>> gives black axis labels and titles ...

## Currently, the plot I want is produced by

par(bg = 'midnightblue', fg = 'yellow',
col.axis='yellow',
col.lab='yellow', col.main='yellow', col.sub='yellow')
plot(Petal.Length, Petal.Width, main = "Fisher's iris data", sub =
"3 kinds")

--------------------------------------------
Why is this ?  --- R's extra flexibility in specifying colors ---
> x11()
> unlist(par(as.list(c("bg","fg",.Pars[ "col"
== substr(.Pars,1,3)]))))
      bg       fg      col col.axis  col.lab col.main  col.sub 
 "white"  "black"  "black"  "black" 
"black"  "black"  "black"

I.e., this was that default

> par(col="blue")
> unlist(par(as.list(c("bg","fg",.Pars[ "col"
== substr(.Pars,1,3)]))))
      bg       fg      col col.axis  col.lab col.main  col.sub 
 "white"  "black"   "blue"  "black" 
"black"  "black"  "black" 
> par(col="black") # set it back
#-- Here I would have liked to change ALL the foreground colors :
			       --------------------------------
> par(fg="blue")
> unlist(par(as.list(c("bg","fg",.Pars[ "col"
== substr(.Pars,1,3)]))))
      bg       fg      col col.axis  col.lab col.main  col.sub 
 "white"   "blue"   "blue"  "black" 
"black"  "black"  "black"


Only the 'col' has been changed, but not  col.axis, col.lab, ...
--------

Do we need another  'par' parameter  to do this,
or couldn't the semantics of  "fg" be changed such that
the example above works as I had expected?

Martin Maechler <maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch>		 <><
Seminar fuer Statistik, SOL G1
ETH (Federal Inst. Technology)	8092 Zurich	 SWITZERLAND
phone: x-41-1-632-3408		fax: ...-1086
http://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/~maechler/



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