The assign function in R

Applejus wrote:

Hello,

I want to convert assign("a", b, where =1 ) from SPLUS to R.
Is it safe to assume that the equivalent of where=1 is pos=1  in R?

Thanks for help!   

Only a limited number of users here know what "where=1" means in 
S-PLUS.  If one of those doesn't answer, you might want to explain 
that for those of us who have forgotten or who never knew.

Even some of those who should know may have forgotten by now... It is 
detailed in the Blue Book somewhere. As I recall it, the story is (or 
was?) that in S-PLUS objects are mostly on disk and the search path is a 
list of directories. Then there is a stack of evaluation frames plus two 
special frames, frame 0 and frame1. Frame 0 is permanent in the sense 
that it exists for the duration of the session, frame 1 exists during 
evaluation of expressions. Assignments to frame 1 were mostly done to 
overcome communication difficulties caused by the lack of lexical scope 
in S -- two different functions needing to work with the same temporary 
object would be the typical case.

I would conjecture that once the purpose of the assignment to frame 1 is 
understood, you can redesign the code so that it becomes much cleaner, 
possibly by using "<<-" semantics. For a quick port, what you need is 
some sort of temporary environment. Assigning to pos=1 is NOT the 
solution, because that is the global environment and you will  (A) risk 
clobbering an existing variable of the same name and (B) litter your 
workspace with intermediate results.

O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             ?ster Farimagsgade 5, Entr.B
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