static variable?

dear R experts:

does R have "static" variables that are local to functions?  I know
that they are usually better avoided (although they are better than
globals).

You put such things in the environment of the function.  If you don't 
want them to be globals, then you create the function with a special 
environment.  There are two common ways to do this:  a function that 
constructs your function (in which case all locals in the constructor 
act like static variables for the constructed function), or using 
local() to construct the function.

For example

 > makef <- function(x) {
+    count <- 0
+    function(y) {
+       count <<- count + 1
+       cat("Called ", count, "times\n")
+       y + x
+    }
+ }
 >
 > add3 <- makef(3)
 >
 > add3(4)
Called  1 times
[1] 7
 > add3(6)
Called  2 times
[1] 9

However, I would like to have a function print how often it was
invoked when it is invoked, or at least print its name only once to
STDOUT when it is invoked many times.

possible without <<- ?

That's exactly what <<- is designed for, so you'd have to use some 
equivalent with assign() to avoid it.

Duncan Murdoch