R-alpha: comparing alpha and numeric

Is this behavior correct? (R 0.49 on SunOS 4.1.4)

"a">1

 TRUE

"a"<1

<etc> 

It gets worse

"3">4

[1] FALSE

"3"<4

[1] TRUE

"3"==4

[1] FALSE

"3"==3

[1] TRUE
all well and good, and perhaps even useful, but

"23"<3 

[1] TRUE
Ouch.

Thomas Lumley
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