\HeaderA{Primitive}{Call a ``Primitive'' Internal Function}{Primitive}
\aliasA{.Primitive}{Primitive}{.Primitive}
\aliasA{primitive}{Primitive}{primitive}
\keyword{interface}{Primitive}
\begin{Description}\relax
\code{.Primitive} returns an entry point to a \sQuote{primitive}
(internally implemented) function.
\end{Description}
\begin{Usage}
\begin{verbatim}
.Primitive(name)
\end{verbatim}
\end{Usage}
\begin{Arguments}
\begin{ldescription}
\item[\code{name}] name of the \R{} function.
\end{ldescription}
\end{Arguments}
\begin{Details}\relax
The advantage of \code{.Primitive} over \code{\LinkA{.Internal}{.Internal}}
functions is the potential efficiency of argument passing.  However,
this is done by ignoring argument names and using positional matching
of arguments (unless arranged differently for specific primitives such
as \code{\LinkA{log}{log}}, \code{\LinkA{round}{round}}, \code{\LinkA{signif}{signif}},
\code{\LinkA{rep}{rep}} and \code{\LinkA{seq.int}{seq.int}}), so this is discouraged
for functions of more than one argument.

All primitive functions are in the base name space.
\end{Details}
\begin{SeeAlso}\relax
\code{\LinkA{.Internal}{.Internal}}.
\end{SeeAlso}
\begin{Examples}
\begin{ExampleCode}
mysqrt <- .Primitive("sqrt")
c
.Internal # this one *must* be primitive!
get("if") # just 'if' or 'print(if)' are not syntactically ok.
\end{ExampleCode}
\end{Examples}

