\Header{showMethods}{Show all the methods for the specified function(s)}
\keyword{methods}{showMethods}
\begin{Description}\relax
Show a summary of the methods for one or more generic functions,
possibly restricted to those involving specified classes.\end{Description}
\begin{Usage}
\begin{verbatim}
showMethods(f=character(), where=-1, classes=NULL, includeDefs=FALSE, 
    inherited=TRUE, printTo = stdout())
\end{verbatim}
\end{Usage}
\begin{Arguments}
\begin{ldescription}
\item[\code{f}] One or more function names.  If omitted, all the functions
on database \code{where} will be examined.

\item[\code{where}] If \code{where} is supplied, the methods definition from that database will be used; otherwise,
the current definition is used (which will include inherited methods that have arisen so
far in the session).  
\item[\code{classes}] If argument \code{classes} is supplied, it is a vector of class names
that restricts the displayed
results to those methods whose signatures include one or more of those
classes. 
\item[\code{includeDefs}] If \code{includeDefs} is \code{TRUE}, include the definitions of the
individual methods in the printout. 
\item[\code{inherited}] If \code{inherits} is \code{TRUE}, then methods that have been found by inheritance, so
far in the session, will be included and marked as inherited. 
\item[\code{printTo}] The connection on which the printed information will be
written.  If \code{printTo} is \code{FALSE}, the output will be
collected as a character vector and returned as the value of the
call to \code{showMethod}.   See \code{\Link{show}}.

\end{ldescription}
\end{Arguments}
\begin{Details}\relax
The output style is different from S-Plus in that it does not show the database
from which the definition comes, but can optionally include the method definitions.\end{Details}
\begin{Value}
If \code{printTo} is \code{FALSE}, the character vector that would
have been printed is returned; otherwise the value is the connection or filename.\end{Value}
\begin{Author}\relax
John Chambers\end{Author}
\begin{References}\relax
The web page \url{http://www.omegahat.org/RSMethods/index.html} is the primary documentation.

The functions in this package emulate the facility for classes and methods described in
\emph{Programming with Data}, (John M. Chambers, Springer, 1998).  See this book
for further details and examples.\end{References}
\begin{SeeAlso}\relax
\code{\Link{setMethod}}, and \code{\Link{GenericFunctions}}
for other tools involving methods; \code{\Link{show}} for\end{SeeAlso}
\begin{Examples}
\begin{ExampleCode}

## assuming the methods for plot
## are set up as in the documentation for setMethod,
## print (without definitions) the methods that involve
## class "track"
showMethods("plot", classes = "track")

Function "plot":
x = ANY, y = track
x = track, y = missing
x = track, y = ANY
\end{ExampleCode}
\end{Examples}

