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[S] Assignment operator in S-Plus

To: s-news@wubios.wustl.edu
Subject: [S] Assignment operator in S-Plus
From: Alan Zaslavsky <zaslavsk@hcp.med.harvard.edu>
Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 17:33:19 -0400 (EDT)
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At the almost certain risk of being jumped on by many (or worse yet,
starting a long and unproductive debate), I ask why a syntax is
considered desirable in which

        x>-1

is a logical expression for a comparison and

        x<-1 

reassigns the value of x ?

I understand that C programmers are irritated by the use of the underscore,
which they typically see as part of a variable name rather than an operator.
On the other hand, in almost 15 years of using S I have not reconciled myself
to the use of the <- as a kluge for the unfortunate (?) loss of the arrow
symbol on the old APL keyboard.

        Alan Zaslavsky
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