Make a plot to compare point estimates and their confidence intervals

plot.compare.CI <- function(x, CI, ylab = "Estimates", ...)
{
    ## Purpose: Make a plot to compare point estimates and their confidence intervals
    ##          (presumably derived from different methods)
    ## Arguments:
    ##   x: a vector of point estimates
    ##   CI: a matrix of CI's. Each column is a CI pair.
    ##       1st row is lower CI. 2nd row is upper CI
    ##   ...: pass to the plot function. 
    ## Return: a plot. 
    ## Author: Feiming Chen
    ## ________________________________________________

    require(gplots)

    ## Determine how best to put X-axis Labels --------------------
    lx <- length(x)                     # number of point estimates

    if (lx > 7) {
        xlas <- 2
        o <- par(mar = c(10, 4, 4, 2))
        on.exit(par(o))
    }

    li <- CI[1,]
    ui <- CI[2,]
    plotCI(x, li = li, ui = ui, barcol="blue", xaxt="n", xlab = "", ylab = ylab, sfrac = 0.005, xlim = c(0.7, lx + 0.3), ...)

    s <- 1:lx
    ss <- names(x)
    axis(side=1, at = s, labels= ss, tick = F, las = 0)

    ## put on numerical labels on the CI's. 
    s1 <- s + 0.18                       # offset
    ## median & CI labels
    text(s1, y = li, labels = round(li, 2))
    text(s1, y = ui, labels = round(ui, 2))
    text(s1, y = x,  labels = round(x, 2))
}
if (F) {                                # Unit Test
    x <- 1:3
    names(x) <- c("A", "B", "C")
    CI <- matrix(c(0.8, 1.2, 1.7, 2.3, 2.9, 3.1), nrow = 2)
    plot.compare.CI(x, CI)
}