How to specify which dead dimensions get dropped?

[<Agin.Patrick@hydro.qc.ca>]

Dear S-News users,
Is there a simple way to select a sub-array specifying which particular
dead dimensions get dropped? Example, suppose that I have a 3D array Y
and I want to apply the usual drop flag to the first dimension only, I
would like the dimension of the resulting sub-array be:

3x4x5 if dim(Y) is 3x4x5
4x5   if dim(Y) is 1x4x5
1x5   if dim(Y) is 1x1x5
3x1x5 if dim(Y) is 3x1x5

I found in the S-news Archive a post (dated Aug.2000) that was related
to that topic (title is "Selective dimension dropping") but no answer
was posted on the S-news. I'm using S-Plus 4.5.

Best regards,
Patrick