Albert-Jan Roskam
2010-Apr-24 19:13 UTC
[R] method dispatching vs inheritance/polymorphism
Hi, I'm having trouble seeing the added value over functions defined by setGeneric vis-a-vis methods defined by inheritance and polymorphism. setGeneric offers a 'clean' call to a generic function, ie. no need to call new(), so less typing to do for the user. But such explicit calls can also be avoided by functions like f <- function(x, y) new(Class = SomeClass, x=x, y=y). Then again, R relies heavily on method dispatching, so it must have clear advantages. *confused* Can anybody enlighten me? Thanks in advance! Cheers!! Albert-Jan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [[alternative HTML version deleted]]