Is there any difference between <- and =

thanks for your supportive comments!

by that time r programs will be scanned directly from your head, i
suppose, and the intelligent scanner will as gladly take <- as it will
=, so the problem will rather vanish.

Yes, and maybe the scanner will be more intelligent than the programmer so 
when the programmer is confused about what he/she wants, the scanner will 
figure it out!  :-)