R annoyances

[snip]

R uses round brackets in two unrelated ways:

  4*(1+2)  --- using "(" and ")" to signify grouping
f(8)  function f() evaluated at 8.

where there is no reason to use the same parenthesis symbol for both
tasks.

The same is done in Fortran/C/C++/Java/Python and God knows how many
others...

well yes, but that doesn't mean it's the Right Thing To Do (tm).

Gabor points out that "f(10)" having meaning whether f is a vector or a 
function
is interesting.  I guess this is right, but I can't think of a 
real-life situation in which
this would be useful.

IMO, the only system with consistent parenthesis use is Mathematica;

f[10]  #  function f[] evaluated at 10
8*(2+2)   # parenthesis to override  order of operations
f[[3]] # third element of list f

{} are used for sets.

Just out of curiosity, what's used for grouping expressions?

all statements on a line are executed sequentially.   Execution 
continues to next line
if there are any unmatched parentheses or dangling operators.

  So it's a bit pythonesque.

Andy

--
Robin Hankin
Uncertainty Analyst
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
  tel  023-8059-7743