[R] list assignment syntax?

[ivo welch]

I finally got around to posting my list of R gripes on a blog at
http://ivo-welch.blogspot.com/2012/04/r-annoyances-and-gripes.html .
I did put in some time, but I do not expect anyone to read it.  it was
more for myself.  still, if you are curious, I would love to hear
where I got it wrong and where I got it right.

regards,

/iaw
----
Ivo Welch (ivo.welch at gmail.com)


On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 8:35 AM, ivo welch <ivo.welch at gmail.com> wrote:
> "what is the problem you are trying to solve?"
>
> elegance, ease, and readability in my programs.
>
> R has morphed from a data manipulation, graphics, and stats program
> into my mainstay programming language.  most of this has been a huge
> gain.  the addition of the parallel package was another recent big
> gain for me.
>
> some of it is a loss.  I particularly lament the fact that I cannot
> turn off [silent] recycling (causing great hair loss on my end at
> various occasions), no applicable error line number output on error
> messages; and some syntax that could be nicer.    this was a prime
> example of the latter.
>
> regards, /iaw
>
> [and then there are some impossible syntax desires, like in-string
> substitution.  would it not be nice if I could write f("use $a\n")
> instead of f(paste("use", a, "\n", sep="")) ?]
>
> [some of my loss relates to my lack of understanding of some of the
> magic behind R.  I just stumbled onto the fact that I can obtain loess
> x variables with l$x; until then, I was trying to figure out how to
> construct names and paste to match what unlist told me.   worse, I
> have spotty memory.  you guys reading and helping out people like me,
> plus the google archives here, are angels.  without your help, I could
> not use R.]
>
>
> ----
> Ivo Welch (ivo.welch at gmail.com)