R help - Jun 2008 - par(mfrow=c(4,2)) vs. lattice

I have had good sucess with the par(mfrow=c(#,#)) for formating graphs and
they look good to me.  I have seen a lot of use of the lattice package and
thought I would go fishing on the list for y'all's comments.  Is there a
time when lattice would be easier more appropriate for certain graphics over
par(mfrow(#,#)).
Just wondering

Stephen

-- 
Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that are so
little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up and make us
feel like gods. We are mammals, and have not exhausted the annoying little
problems of being mammals.

-K. Mullis

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

FWIW:

I use lattice exclusively. One difference from the mfrow approach is that
lattice automatically provides (if desired) the same scaling on all plots,
necessary to make visual comparisons. It also provides an easy way to
appropriately label and and arrange the plots, as well as to provide
standard enhancements (e.g. a benchmark curve or line on all graphs) on all.
Again, this makes visual comparison among the plots possible, which is what
I mostly have to do. Customizable panel functions give me all the
flexibility and control I need. Generally, it's not hard to write your own,
using the extensive building blocks Deepayan has provided.

All of this is possible through mfrow of course --- you just have to do it
manually. Lattice makes it easy (for me!).

Note: there **is** a considerable learning curve, but Deepayan has done an
exemplary job of documenting lattice, and his new book is a well-written and
extensive resource for self-learning (all IMHO, of course).

Just my $.02.

Cheers,

Bert Gunter
Genentech Nonclinical Statistics 

-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org]
On
Behalf Of stephen sefick
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 10:10 AM
To: r-help at r-project.org
Subject: [R] par(mfrow=c(4,2)) vs. lattice

I have had good sucess with the par(mfrow=c(#,#)) for formating graphs and
they look good to me.  I have seen a lot of use of the lattice package and
thought I would go fishing on the list for y'all's comments.  Is there a
time when lattice would be easier more appropriate for certain graphics over
par(mfrow(#,#)).
Just wondering

Stephen

-- 
Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that are so
little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up and make us
feel like gods. We are mammals, and have not exhausted the annoying little
problems of being mammals.

-K. Mullis

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

______________________________________________
R-help at r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

mfrow is for classic graphics and when the graphs are unrelated.

lattice is for grid graphics and typically when the panels are related
such as being the same plot but conditioned on different factor levels.

These are typical uses only as one can write arbitary panels with lattice
and produce related graphs using mfrow with some extra work.

On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 1:09 PM, stephen sefick <ssefick at gmail.com>
wrote:
> I have had good sucess with the par(mfrow=c(#,#)) for formating graphs and
> they look good to me.  I have seen a lot of use of the lattice package and
> thought I would go fishing on the list for y'all's comments.  Is
there a
> time when lattice would be easier more appropriate for certain graphics
over
> par(mfrow(#,#)).
> Just wondering
>
> Stephen
>
> --
> Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that are
so
> little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up and make us
> feel like gods. We are mammals, and have not exhausted the annoying little
> problems of being mammals.
>
> -K. Mullis
>
>        [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>