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Add base functions
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mikemahoney218 committed Dec 7, 2023
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4 changes: 2 additions & 2 deletions _freeze/posts/2023-12-07-View/index/execute-results/html.json
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{
"hash": "8d0bf591c3ab74506f1b49f65b553541",
"hash": "06541d8a0e40972bb95f2f23923b8ec5",
"result": {
"markdown": "---\ntitle: \"Why is `View()` capitalized, anyway?\"\ndescription: \"And down the rabbit hole we go.\"\nauthor:\n - name: Mike Mahoney\n url: {}\ndate: \"2023-12-07\"\ncategories: [R]\nimage: banner.jpg\nformat: \n html:\n toc: true\nengine: knitr\n---\n\n\n[Over on BlueSky, David John Baker asks](https://bsky.app/profile/davidjohnbaker.bsky.social/post/3kfxbci3ji22h):\n\n![](post.png){fig-alt=\"Post from David John Baker on BlueSky: Why is does the `View()` function in R start with a capital V? I have no idea why. Does this have to do with functions that are not just dealing with some sort of standard output? #rstats\"}\n\nMy first thought on reading this was that `View()` in RStudio is built to mask the `View()` function from utils, and so capitalizes the V because utils capitalized the V. Things are the way they are because they are the way they are, yet again.\n\nBut of course, that's not the actual question -- not only did David specify he's talking about the function in _R_, not in _RStudio_, but of course someone decided that utils should capitalize the `View()` function as well. And this is weird! There are not that many functions in base R that start with a capital letter:\n\n\n::: {.cell}\n\n```{.r .cell-code}\ngetOption(\"defaultPackages\") |> \n setdiff(\"datasets\") |> \n vapply(\\(x) paste0(\"package:\", x), character(1)) |> \n ls() |> \n strsplit(\"\") |> \n Filter(f = \\(x) x[[1]] %in% LETTERS) |> \n vapply(paste0, character(1), collapse = \"\")\n```\n\n::: {.cell-output .cell-output-stdout}\n```\n [1] \"Rprof\" \"Rprofmem\" \"RShowDoc\" \n [4] \"RSiteSearch\" \"Rtangle\" \"RtangleFinish\" \n [7] \"RtangleRuncode\" \"RtangleSetup\" \"RtangleWritedoc\" \n[10] \"RweaveChunkPrefix\" \"RweaveEvalWithOpt\" \"RweaveLatex\" \n[13] \"RweaveLatexFinish\" \"RweaveLatexOptions\" \"RweaveLatexSetup\" \n[16] \"RweaveLatexWritedoc\" \"RweaveTryStop\" \"Stangle\" \n[19] \"Sweave\" \"SweaveHooks\" \"SweaveSyntaxLatex\" \n[22] \"SweaveSyntaxNoweb\" \"SweaveSyntConv\" \"URLdecode\" \n[25] \"URLencode\" \"View\" \n```\n:::\n:::\n\n\nThese functions all follow one of three patterns:\n\n+ Functions that start with `R` or `S`, capitalized because it's the name of a programming language; \n+ Functions that start with URL;\n+ `View()` _by itself_!\n\nSo `View()` is weird; it's the only function that starts with a capital letter that's not named after a proper noun.^[[Merriam-Webster calls \"URL\" a noun](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/URL), even if it originated as an acronym, get out of my comments.] And it's been weird for a long time. The original version of the function was also capitalized when it was added by Professor Brian D Ripley way back in 2007:\n\n![](commit.png){fig-alt=\"Commit by Prof. Brian D Ripley on Feb 19 2007, adding the capitalized `View()` function.\"}\n\nNow here's where we enter the world of wild speculation. Because if we look at the documentation for `View()`, we can see that this function is meant to \"Invoke a Data Viewer\", with \"Data Viewer\" capitalized like a proper noun in both the function title and description:\n\n![](ViewDoc.png){fig-alt=\"The rd documentation file for `View()`. Notably, the Description field capitalizes the phrase Data Viewer.\"}\n\nThis isn't a universal style. If we look for instance at the documentation for `edit()`, which pre-dates `View()`,^[Though I'm not sure who originally wrote it; I get a bit lost in the VCS logs from before base functions were split into sub-packages.] we can see that \"text editor\" is capitalized in the title but not in the description:\n\n![](EditDoc.png){fig-alt=\"The rd documentation file for `edit()`. Notably, the Description field _does not_ capitalize the phrase text editor.\"}\n\nSo this makes me suspect that Data Viewer here is being used as a proper noun. This wouldn't be a unique usage; for instance, the [RStudio user guide also describes its viewer as a Data Viewer, capitalized](https://docs.posit.co/ide/user/ide/guide/data/data-viewer.html), and a search for \"Data Viewer\" suggests the phrase is capitalized something like 2/3 of the time on public websites. I have absolutely no knowledge of the tech jargon of 2007, or of the proper styling of \"data viewer\",^[And I assume these two things are related!] but it does seem like it's _sometimes_ a proper noun.\n\nSo, to wildly speculate just a little further: is `View()` capitalized because \"Viewer\" was capitalized, at least back in 2007?\n\nNow, here's a decent piece of evidence _against_ this conjecture: the details section of the `View()` documentation, added at the same time as the title and description,^[And the function itself; all of this documentation is also still in the official help file.] doesn't capitalize the phrase \"data viewer\":\n\n![](ViewDetails.png){fig-alt=\"The details section of the `View()` documentation. Data viewer is not capitalized.\"}\n\nThat said, this is also not unique. That same [RStudio user guide also sometimes writes \"data viewer\" in lowercase](https://docs.posit.co/ide/user/ide/guide/data/data-viewer.html#scrolling), though in _most_ of the guide it's treated as a proper noun.\n\nSo there's one guess: maybe `View()` is capitalized because, like the functions starting with R and S and URL, it's named after a proper noun. Things are the way they are because they are the way they are, yet again.\n\nIf anyone knows more, though -- or feels like asking Professor Ripley -- please drop me a line. I'd love to know the actual answer.\n",
"markdown": "---\ntitle: \"Why is `View()` capitalized, anyway?\"\ndescription: \"And down the rabbit hole we go.\"\nauthor:\n - name: Mike Mahoney\n url: {}\ndate: \"2023-12-07\"\ncategories: [R]\nimage: banner.jpg\nformat: \n html:\n toc: true\nengine: knitr\n---\n\n\n[Over on BlueSky, David John Baker asks](https://bsky.app/profile/davidjohnbaker.bsky.social/post/3kfxbci3ji22h):\n\n![](post.png){fig-alt=\"Post from David John Baker on BlueSky: Why is does the `View()` function in R start with a capital V? I have no idea why. Does this have to do with functions that are not just dealing with some sort of standard output? #rstats\"}\n\nMy first thought on reading this was that `View()` in RStudio is built to mask the `View()` function from utils, and so capitalizes the V because utils capitalized the V. Things are the way they are because they are the way they are, yet again.\n\nBut of course, that's not the actual question -- not only did David specify he's talking about the function in _R_, not in _RStudio_, but of course someone decided that utils should capitalize the `View()` function as well. And this is weird! There are not that many functions in base R that start with a capital letter:\n\n\n::: {.cell}\n\n```{.r .cell-code}\ngetOption(\"defaultPackages\") |> \n setdiff(\"datasets\") |> \n vapply(\\(x) paste0(\"package:\", x), character(1)) |> \n ls() |> \n strsplit(\"\") |> \n Filter(f = \\(x) x[[1]] %in% LETTERS) |> \n vapply(paste0, character(1), collapse = \"\")\n```\n\n::: {.cell-output .cell-output-stdout}\n```\n [1] \"Rprof\" \"Rprofmem\" \"RShowDoc\" \n [4] \"RSiteSearch\" \"Rtangle\" \"RtangleFinish\" \n [7] \"RtangleRuncode\" \"RtangleSetup\" \"RtangleWritedoc\" \n[10] \"RweaveChunkPrefix\" \"RweaveEvalWithOpt\" \"RweaveLatex\" \n[13] \"RweaveLatexFinish\" \"RweaveLatexOptions\" \"RweaveLatexSetup\" \n[16] \"RweaveLatexWritedoc\" \"RweaveTryStop\" \"Stangle\" \n[19] \"Sweave\" \"SweaveHooks\" \"SweaveSyntaxLatex\" \n[22] \"SweaveSyntaxNoweb\" \"SweaveSyntConv\" \"URLdecode\" \n[25] \"URLencode\" \"View\" \n```\n:::\n:::\n\n\nThese functions all follow one of three patterns:\n\n+ Functions that start with `R` or `S`, capitalized because it's the name of a programming language; \n+ Functions that start with URL;\n+ `View()` _by itself_!\n\n**Update:**\n\nA few minutes after publishing, [Konrad Rudolph points out on Mastodon](https://fosstodon.org/@[email protected]/111540097245999105) that there are plenty of functions in the base package _itself_ that are capitalized and don't match these rules:\n\n\n::: {.cell}\n\n```{.r .cell-code}\nls(\"package:base\") |> \n strsplit(\"\") |> \n Filter(f = \\(x) x[[1]] %in% LETTERS) |> \n vapply(paste0, character(1), collapse = \"\")\n```\n\n::: {.cell-output .cell-output-stdout}\n```\n [1] \"Arg\" \"Conj\" \n [3] \"Cstack_info\" \"Encoding\" \n [5] \"Encoding<-\" \"F\" \n [7] \"Filter\" \"Find\" \n [9] \"I\" \"Im\" \n[11] \"ISOdate\" \"ISOdatetime\" \n[13] \"La_library\" \"La_version\" \n[15] \"La.svd\" \"LETTERS\" \n[17] \"Map\" \"Math.data.frame\" \n[19] \"Math.Date\" \"Math.difftime\" \n[21] \"Math.factor\" \"Math.POSIXt\" \n[23] \"Mod\" \"NCOL\" \n[25] \"Negate\" \"NextMethod\" \n[27] \"NROW\" \"OlsonNames\" \n[29] \"Ops.data.frame\" \"Ops.Date\" \n[31] \"Ops.difftime\" \"Ops.factor\" \n[33] \"Ops.numeric_version\" \"Ops.ordered\" \n[35] \"Ops.POSIXt\" \"Position\" \n[37] \"R_compiled_by\" \"R_system_version\" \n[39] \"R.home\" \"R.version\" \n[41] \"R.Version\" \"R.version.string\" \n[43] \"Re\" \"Recall\" \n[45] \"Reduce\" \"RNGkind\" \n[47] \"RNGversion\" \"Summary.data.frame\" \n[49] \"Summary.Date\" \"Summary.difftime\" \n[51] \"Summary.factor\" \"Summary.numeric_version\"\n[53] \"Summary.ordered\" \"Summary.POSIXct\" \n[55] \"Summary.POSIXlt\" \"Sys.chmod\" \n[57] \"Sys.Date\" \"Sys.getenv\" \n[59] \"Sys.getlocale\" \"Sys.getpid\" \n[61] \"Sys.glob\" \"Sys.info\" \n[63] \"Sys.localeconv\" \"Sys.readlink\" \n[65] \"Sys.setenv\" \"Sys.setFileTime\" \n[67] \"Sys.setLanguage\" \"Sys.setlocale\" \n[69] \"Sys.sleep\" \"Sys.time\" \n[71] \"Sys.timezone\" \"Sys.umask\" \n[73] \"Sys.unsetenv\" \"Sys.which\" \n[75] \"T\" \"UseMethod\" \n[77] \"Vectorize\" \n```\n:::\n:::\n\n\nOne of those is `Filter()`, which I _literally used in the original code chunk_ and somehow didn't notice started with a capital letter.\n\n< / update >\n\nBut even with that said, `View()` is the only function _in recommended packages_ that starts with a capital letter that's not named after a proper noun.^[[Merriam-Webster calls \"URL\" a noun](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/URL), even if it originated as an acronym, get out of my comments.] And it's been weird for a long time. The original version of the function was also capitalized when it was added by Professor Brian D Ripley way back in 2007:\n\n![](commit.png){fig-alt=\"Commit by Prof. Brian D Ripley on Feb 19 2007, adding the capitalized `View()` function.\"}\n\nNow here's where we enter the world of wild speculation. Because if we look at the documentation for `View()`, we can see that this function is meant to \"Invoke a Data Viewer\", with \"Data Viewer\" capitalized like a proper noun in both the function title and description:\n\n![](ViewDoc.png){fig-alt=\"The rd documentation file for `View()`. Notably, the Description field capitalizes the phrase Data Viewer.\"}\n\nThis isn't a universal style. If we look for instance at the documentation for `edit()`, which pre-dates `View()`,^[Though I'm not sure who originally wrote it; I get a bit lost in the VCS logs from before base functions were split into sub-packages.] we can see that \"text editor\" is capitalized in the title but not in the description:\n\n![](EditDoc.png){fig-alt=\"The rd documentation file for `edit()`. Notably, the Description field _does not_ capitalize the phrase text editor.\"}\n\nSo this makes me suspect that Data Viewer here is being used as a proper noun. This wouldn't be a unique usage; for instance, the [RStudio user guide also describes its viewer as a Data Viewer, capitalized](https://docs.posit.co/ide/user/ide/guide/data/data-viewer.html), and a search for \"Data Viewer\" suggests the phrase is capitalized something like 2/3 of the time on public websites. I have absolutely no knowledge of the tech jargon of 2007, or of the proper styling of \"data viewer\",^[And I assume these two things are related!] but it does seem like it's _sometimes_ a proper noun.\n\nSo, to wildly speculate just a little further: is `View()` capitalized because \"Viewer\" was capitalized, at least back in 2007?\n\nNow, here's a decent piece of evidence _against_ this conjecture: the details section of the `View()` documentation, added at the same time as the title and description,^[And the function itself; all of this documentation is also still in the official help file.] doesn't capitalize the phrase \"data viewer\":\n\n![](ViewDetails.png){fig-alt=\"The details section of the `View()` documentation. Data viewer is not capitalized.\"}\n\nThat said, this is also not unique. That same [RStudio user guide also sometimes writes \"data viewer\" in lowercase](https://docs.posit.co/ide/user/ide/guide/data/data-viewer.html#scrolling), though in _most_ of the guide it's treated as a proper noun.\n\nSo there's one guess: maybe `View()` is capitalized because, like the functions starting with R and S and URL, it's named after a proper noun. Things are the way they are because they are the way they are, yet again.\n\nIf anyone knows more, though -- or feels like asking Professor Ripley -- please drop me a line. I'd love to know the actual answer.\n",
"supporting": [],
"filters": [
"rmarkdown/pagebreak.lua"
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17 changes: 16 additions & 1 deletion posts/2023-12-07-View/index.qmd
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -37,7 +37,22 @@ These functions all follow one of three patterns:
+ Functions that start with URL;
+ `View()` _by itself_!

So `View()` is weird; it's the only function that starts with a capital letter that's not named after a proper noun.^[[Merriam-Webster calls "URL" a noun](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/URL), even if it originated as an acronym, get out of my comments.] And it's been weird for a long time. The original version of the function was also capitalized when it was added by Professor Brian D Ripley way back in 2007:
**Update:**

A few minutes after publishing, [Konrad Rudolph points out on Mastodon](https://fosstodon.org/@[email protected]/111540097245999105) that there are plenty of functions in the base package _itself_ that are capitalized and don't match these rules:

```{r}
ls("package:base") |>
strsplit("") |>
Filter(f = \(x) x[[1]] %in% LETTERS) |>
vapply(paste0, character(1), collapse = "")
```

One of those is `Filter()`, which I _literally used in the original code chunk_ and somehow didn't notice started with a capital letter.

< / update >

But even with that said, `View()` is the only function _in recommended packages_ that starts with a capital letter that's not named after a proper noun.^[[Merriam-Webster calls "URL" a noun](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/URL), even if it originated as an acronym, get out of my comments.] And it's been weird for a long time. The original version of the function was also capitalized when it was added by Professor Brian D Ripley way back in 2007:

![](commit.png){fig-alt="Commit by Prof. Brian D Ripley on Feb 19 2007, adding the capitalized `View()` function."}

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