[R] advice/opinion on "<-" vs "=" in teaching R

[Peter Dalgaard]

Barry Rowlingson wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 3:45 AM, Erin Hodgess <erinm.hodgess at gmail.com>wrote:
> 
>> Hi R People:
>>
>> I'm teaching a statistical computing class using R starting next week
>> (yay!) and I have an opinion type question, please.
>>
>> I'm old school and use "<-" in an assignment.
>>
>>
>  You call that 'old school'?? I still use ' x_1'! Of course ESS turns the
> underscore into '<-' magically.
> 
>  Perhaps these guys should redo their tests with slightly different syntax:
> 
> http://www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/research/PhDArea/saeed/paper1.pdf
> 
> Barry
> 

I do like their experimental design:

"In a bizarre event which one of the authors insists was planned, and
the other maintains was a really stupid idea that just happened to work,
the test was first administered to about 30 students on a...."

("Like" in the sense of being amused, of course)

-p


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