The wrapper wraps, i.e. calls, another function that does the real work but provides a different or more convenient (or more convenient for a specific purpose) interface to it or specific syntax. Often the wrapper has the same arguments but different defaults and sometimes that is referred to as a "convenience" wrapper. Sometimes its used in the sense of providing an R interface to a C function with essentially similar arguments.
by is a wrapper to tapply which preprocesses the data in a way that makes it acceptable to tapply, read.csv and Map are wrappers to read.table and mapply which are the same but have different argument defaults, sprintf is a wrapper to the C function of the same name, %o% is a wrapper to outer. I don't think there is a formalized definition within R -- the above is based on current usage. On Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 2:51 PM, Bryan Hanson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I think I more or less understand what a ³wrapper² is, but I¹d like to hear > how more experienced R users define it, and especially I'd like to know if > there is a formal definition. In my reading, it seems like there are a > fairly wide range of meanings, but they are all conceptually similar. > > I've looked in a couple of the classic R texts, the extensions and > developers' manuals, and R help archives, and didn't find a definition. Of > course, I may have missed it. > > Thanks in advance. Bryan > > ************** > Bryan Hanson > Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry > DePauw University > 602 S. College Avenue > Greencastle, IN 46135 > PHONE 765-658-4602 > FAX 765-658-6084 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://academic.depauw.edu/~hanson/deadpezsociety.html > http://www.depauw.edu/acad/chemistry/ > http://academic.depauw.edu/~hanson/UMP/index.html > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@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. > ______________________________________________ R-help@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.
