Message-ID: <43978323.4000201@ozemail.com.au>
Date: 2005-12-08T00:49:39Z
From: Jim Lemon
Subject: R is GNU S, not C.... [was "how to get or store ....."]
In-Reply-To: <1133874017.17441.45.camel@dhcp-82.wolf.ox.ac.uk>
Adaikalavan Ramasamy wrote:
> Yes, it drives me mad too when people use "=" instead of "<-" for
> assignment and suppress spaces in an naive attempt for saving space.
>
In fact, I like the <- assignment operator, but tend to write code
densely myself as that is the way I like to view it. As R formats the
source code it displays in the typographic density approved by the
gurus, it does seem a tidge authoritarian to insist that everyone adhere
to the same coding style in private. After all, I don't whinge about
having to scroll up and down like a yoyo when attempting to decipher
other people's "spaced out" code.
I intentionally don't use semicolons as line terminators in R to
forestall my C reflexes. The greatest difficulty I have with this sort
of interference is between R and Tcl-Tk which, combined with the correct
titre of fatigue, almost always leads to syntax errors. I did enjoy
Ted's defense of the semicolon in R, as it emphasizes the diversity of
styles upon which cooperative programming depends.
Jim