[R] list arithmetic

[Trenkler, Dietrich]

I'm an old APL fossil and I got  used to work with nested arrays there.
In APL(2) you can write 1+(1 2 3)(4 5 6 7 8 9) and get (2 3 4)(5 6 7 8 9
10).
A similar concept is R's lists. So it takes me by surprise to learn that

        1+list(1:3,4:9)

delivers an
 
Error in 1 + list(1:3, 4:9) : non-numeric argument to binary operator


Is there any particular reason why this doesn't work as expected? I know
that 

           lapply(list(1:3,4:9),"+",y=1)

is an alternative but I hold that 1+list(1:3,4:9) looks more
straightforward.

 --- D.Trenkler ---

************************************************************************
*********
   Dietrich Trenkler
(trenkler at oec.uni-osnabrueck.de)      
   Statistik / Empirische Wirtschaftsforschung
   Universitaet Osnabrueck
   Rolandstrasse 8                             Phone: +49(0)
541-969-2753
   D-49069 Osnabrueck                        Fax  : +49(0) 541-969-2744
   GERMANY
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