[R] New to List - just starting to learn R - question about reading in data

[Dirty D]

Hi, everyone,

I'm new to R and the List, and excited to be here.  I am coming from a 
background working in SPSS 16, primarily, which has a lot of easy 
options for reading in data.  I am working in R in an Ubuntu Linux 
environment, and I'm learning with R Commander.

Now, here's my question. In my line of work, I'm used to getting data in 
some kind of flat ASCII format with a separate file indicating which 
columns correspond to which variables.  In the Venables and Ripley book 
on S/R that I'm reading, there doesn't seem to be a way to read this 
kind of data format into R, and I haven't found anything online.

If anyone has the tine, I'd sure appreciate a little guidance. 

Thanks,

DD