the less-than-minus gotcha

All the more reason to use = instead of <-

Couldn't agree less, Steve. The "<-" should be used for assignment. The 
"=" sign should be reserved for handling function arguments in the 
"name=value" form.  Doing anything else invites confusion and 
occasionally chaos.

Lots of examples have been given in the past involving syntax of the 
form foo(x = y) and foo(x <- y).

cheers,

Rolf

Rolf Turner
Technical Editor ANZJS
Department of Statistics
University of Auckland
Phone: +64-9-373-7599 ext. 88276
Home phone: +64-9-480-4619