promptClass             package:methods             R Documentation

Generate a Shell for Documentation of a Formal Class

Description:

     Assembles all relevant slot and method information for a class,
     with minimal markup for Rd processing; no QC facilities at
     present.

Usage:

     promptClass(clName, filename = NULL, type = "class",
                 keywords = "classes", where = topenv(parent.frame()))

Arguments:

  clName: a character string naming the class to be documented.

filename: usually, a connection or a character string giving the name
          of the file to which the documentation shell should be
          written. The default corresponds to a file whose name is the
          topic name for the class documentation, followed by '".Rd"'. 
          Can also be 'NA' (see below).

    type: the documentation type to be declared in the output file.

keywords: the keywords to include in the shell of the documentation. 
          The keyword '"classes"' should be one of them.

   where: where to look for the definition of the class and of methods
          that use it. 

Details:

     The class definition is found on the search list.  Using that
     definition, information about classes extended and slots is
     determined.

     In addition, the currently available generics with methods for
     this class are found (using 'getGenerics').  Note that these
     methods need not be in the same environment as the class
     definition; in particular, this part of the output may depend on
     which packages are currently in the search list.

     As with other prompt-style functions, unless 'filename' is 'NA',
     the documentation shell is written to a file, and a message about
     this is given.  The file will need editing to give information
     about the _meaning_ of the class.  The output of 'promptClass' can
     only contain information from the metadata about the formal
     definition and how it is used.

     If 'filename' is 'NA', a list-style representation of the
     documentation shell is created and returned.  Writing the shell to
     a file amounts to 'cat(unlist(x), file = filename, sep = "\n")',
     where 'x' is the list-style representation.

Value:

     If 'filename' is 'NA', a list-style representation of the
     documentation shell.  Otherwise, the name of the file written to
     is returned invisibly.

Author(s):

     VJ Carey stvjc@channing.harvard.edu and John Chambers

References:

     The functions in this package emulate the facility for classes and
     methods described in _Programming with Data_ (John M. Chambers,
     Springer, 1998).  See this book for further details and examples.

See Also:

     'prompt' for documentation of functions, 'promptMethods' for
     documentation of method definitions.

     For processing of the edited documentation, either use 'R CMD
     Rdconv', or include the edited file in the 'man' subdirectory of a
     package.

Examples:

     ## Not run: 
     > promptClass("track")
     A shell of class documentation has been written to the
     file "track-class.Rd".
     ## End(Not run)

