Some Notes on lattice

Trellis Graphics is implemented in S-PLUS using the traditional S graphics engine. In contrast, lattice, the implementation of Trellis Graphics in R, uses grid graphics as the underlying mechanism. Being an independent implementation, lattice differs from the original in several other aspects as well. Most of the literature available on Trellis Graphics describes the implementation in S-PLUS. This paper attempts to supplement that material by giving an overview of the major differences between the two. In section 2 we discuss the benefits of using grid and provide some examples illustrating its usefulness. In section 3 we discuss some differences between the Trellis and lattice user level API’s. An elementary knowledge of Trellis Graphics is assumed.