| % File src/library/methods/man/zBasicFunsList.Rd |
| % Part of the R package, https://www.R-project.org |
| % Copyright 1995-2007 R Core Team |
| % Distributed under GPL 2 or later |
| |
| \name{.BasicFunsList} |
| \alias{.BasicFunsList} |
| \title{List of Builtin and Special Functions} |
| \description{ |
| A named list providing instructions for turning builtin and special |
| functions into generic functions. |
| |
| Functions in R that are defined as \code{.Primitive(<name>)} are not |
| suitable for formal methods, because they lack the basic reflectance |
| property. You can't find the argument list for these functions by |
| examining the function object itself. |
| |
| Future versions of R may fix this by attaching a formal argument list |
| to the corresponding function. While generally the names of arguments |
| are not checked by the internal code implementing the function, the |
| number of arguments frequently is. |
| |
| In any case, some definition of a formal argument list is needed if |
| users are to define methods for these functions. In particular, if |
| methods are to be merged from multiple packages, the different sets |
| of methods need to agree on the formal arguments. |
| |
| In the absence of reflectance, this list provides the relevant |
| information via a dummy function associated with each of the known |
| specials for which methods are allowed. |
| |
| At the same, the list flags those specials for which methods are |
| meaningless (e.g., \code{for}) or just a very bad idea (e.g., |
| \code{.Primitive}). |
| |
| A generic function created via \code{\link{setMethod}}, for |
| example, for one of these special functions will have the argument |
| list from \code{.BasicFunsList}. If no entry exists, the argument |
| list \code{(x, ...)} is assumed. |
| } |
| \keyword{ programming } |
| \keyword{ methods } |