R is a function-oriented language and functions have the advantage that
they control unintended side effects of computations on the workspace.
Still, there are times when I am using R when I want to make a large
number of changes to the worksheet repeatedly and where the easiest way
seems to be to keep pasting in the same chunk of code, or to put it on
a file and use source("filename"). So effectively R does have macros as
well as functions.
Question: is the use of macros in this way 'bad practice' to be
deprecated, and if so why? (If I decide that it is bad practice I will
probably go on being bad, but I will try not to pass on bad habits to my
students!)
Murray
Dr Murray Jorgensen http://www.stats.waikato.ac.nz/Staff/maj.html Department of Statistics, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand Email: maj at waikato.ac.nz Fax 7 838 4155 Phone +64 7 838 4773 wk +64 7 849 6486 home Mobile 021 395 862 -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- r-help mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe" (in the "body", not the subject !) To: r-help-request at stat.math.ethz.ch _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._