[datatable-help] changing data.table by-without-by syntax to require a "by"

[Matthew Dowle]

Thanks for your comments Frank. 

Ha, yes it's ancient but still has
a place. Yes "reply all": Back To: sender (if it's to someone in
particular) and cc the list. But on general topics where lots of people
are on the thread, just To: datatable-help alone is fine. Personally I
prefer "top posting". Like I'm doing now. I only scroll down if I need
to. I didn't notice the history was building up. If you comment inline
later, then say "scroll down for comments inline" or something at the
top. Note that Nabble collapses the history for you so threads are much
easier to read there. Or I tend to read via RSS (gmane) in Outlook, so
it feels like an email inbox which turns bold on new posts. You only
need to subscribe to post (spam control). Most people turn off mail
delivery pretty quickly I imagine (or setup an auto rule to move into a
folder, but then you might as well subscribe to RSS I guess). 

S.O. is
quite strict: must be clear questions with a clear answer, only one of
which can be accepted. No opinion, voting, discussing or notices (enter
mailing lists). Chat room is good but for quick chat when people are in
the room at the same time. Many companies (sensibly) block chat access,
though. Mailing lists allows all timezones a chance at a slower pace.
Anonymity is just as acceptable and as easy in both places. 

Matthew


On 26.04.2013 21:34, Frank Erickson wrote: 

> I disagree with the
criticism of data.table's complexity (in the OP). There's nothing wrong
with overloading the syntax (that is what CS people call it, right?). As
long as Matthew's in control of it, it's likely to have some internal
consistency (which, of course, he could explain). However, I like the
suggestion to add options (defaulting to something globally adjustable)
to disable some of the overloading. Along similar lines (I think), I
find unique.data.table very unintuitive. I can see how it could be
useful, but strongly prefer base::unique for my current applications. 
>
Anyway, I have nothing particular to say about the piece of syntax you
all are currently discussing. I just registered with this list to chime
in here, instead of further cluttering SO (where eddi answered one of my
questions yesterday). These emails sure are wide; must be like 1500px!
Interesting to try out this ancient mailing-list form of communication.
Please let me know if I should be using "Reply All" or actually quoting
that massive thread (as everyone else seems to be doing with each post).

> Frank

 
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