model$setInits(inits) gives terrible error with unnamed list elements

[danielturek]

The title says it all. This error should probably be caught somewhere (most likely in model$setInits(), and given a helpful error message.

Minimal example below:

library(nimble)

code <- nimbleCode({ a ~ dnorm(0, 1) })

inits <- list(a = 0, 1)   ## inits list has an unnamed element

Rmodel <- nimbleModel(code)

Rmodel$setInits(inits)
## Error: attempt to use zero-length variable name