R help - Mar 2003 - Proper way to document print( ) functions

Frequently we have a print method, say print.myclass, that has a variety of
arguments.  If in the .Rd file I say

\usage{
\method{print}{myclass}(x, myarg)
}

I get a warning when running R CMD chk:

* checking generic/method consistency ... WARNING
print:
  function(x, ...)
print.myclass:
  function(x, myarg)

What is the proper way to handle this?

Thanks
-- 
Frank E Harrell Jr              Prof. of Biostatistics & Statistics
Div. of Biostatistics & Epidem. Dept. of Health Evaluation Sciences
U. Virginia School of Medicine  http://hesweb1.med.virginia.edu/biostat

The simplest way is to define the method correctly, as print.myclass(x,
myarg, ...).  That message is about the code, not the documentation, but
you will get a different one if the code and documentation disagree.

All print methods must include `...', and there is a section in `Writing R
Extensions' on why.  In brief, I should be able to define class
`richerclass' inheriting from `myclass' and have a print method for
`richerclass' with different arguments that calls
NextMethod("print").

BTW this applies equally to S-PLUS.

On Thu, 6 Mar 2003, Frank E Harrell Jr wrote:
> Frequently we have a print method, say print.myclass, that has a variety of
arguments.  If in the .Rd file I say
> 
> \usage{
> \method{print}{myclass}(x, myarg)
> }
> 
> I get a warning when running R CMD chk:
> 
> * checking generic/method consistency ... WARNING
> print:
>   function(x, ...)
> print.myclass:
>   function(x, myarg)
> 
> What is the proper way to handle this?
> 
> Thanks
> 
-- 
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