[R-SIG-Mac] A shorthand for '<-'

[Byron Ellis]

On Nov 21, 2007 10:27 AM, Simon Urbanek <simon.urbanek at r-project.org> wrote:
>
> On Nov 21, 2007, at 1:11 PM, Byron Ellis wrote:
>
> > I actually like = because I screw myself over with things like
> > b[b<-1]=-1 on a regular basis. :-)
> >
> > Of course, I also manage to screw myself over with (b = 1 | x == 2) so
> > perhaps there's simply no hope for me... Perhaps the Smalltalk-style
> > assignment ':='....
> >
>
> Wasn't that ALGOL, really? ;) I must agree that I like it as well (and
> surprisingly it's still compatible with R's syntax - just in case we
> don't have enough assignment operators already) - but then, I'm one of
> those poor kids who grew up on Pascal, so I don't count ;). [Still, I
> wouldn't go as far as to re-introduce begin/end :P]

I always thought it was a common mapping for the 3270's left arrow key
(I also always assumed that's where S' <- operator came from) when
PC-style keyboards started dominating, the same as the ^ operator in
Smalltalk is a mapping to the up arrow key on the original keyboard. I
too grew up on Pascal (Turbo Pascal 3. Imagine my disappointment in
Anders Hejlsberg and C#, though it's now finally starting to Suck
Less).

>
> Cheers,
> Simon
>
>
>
> > On Nov 21, 2007 8:45 AM, John Chambers <jmc at r-project.org> wrote:
> >> ??? ? ???Simon Urbanek wrote:?James,?????On Nov 21, 2007, at 8:22
> >> AM, James Milks wrote:??????> The '=' sign can be used in place
> >> of?'<-'.  That's the only shorthand ?> I know for R.??> ??> ? ????
> >> That's not a shorthand. `=` and `<-` are semantically different in?
> >> R.????Well, not really :-)????It's true that the "=" operator won't
> >> be displayed as "<-", which ?I?agree was the original point.  But
> >> both assignment operators map ?into?the same internal C code, if
> >> you dig into the implementation.????The "=" operator was added in
> >> S4 to assuage folks with C/Java/awk ?....?backgrounds who didn't
> >> care  for the weird assignment  operator.  ?But?"real" S and R
> >> users still seem to like "<-" better.????Alexy was asking
> >> presumably about shorthands that you press/type in ?the?R Mac GUI
> >> which will result in `<-` being produced and those ?are?<Alt><->
> >> (this comes from Emacs' "_" shortcut which you?type on US ?keyboard
> >> as <Shift><-> but given that the?character _ is often used ?these
> >> days, we c!
> >> reated a variant where you?use <Alt> instead of <Shift>) ?and
> >> <Ctrl><=>?(this one is simply a play on the equal sign and should ?
> >> make sense on?other keyboards, too). The last shorthand I ?
> >> mentioned?(<Alt>+<=>) is a direct translation of the  sign (which?
> >> you ?get in other programs when pressing <Alt><=>) into R?code.?????
> >> Cheers,???
> >> Simon
> >> ?????????------------------------------------------------------------------------??_______________________________________________
> >> ?R-SIG-Mac mailing list?R-SIG-Mac at stat.math.ethz.ch?https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac?
> >>   ???????
> >>        [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> >>
> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Byron Ellis (byron.ellis at gmail.com)
> > "Oook" -- The Librarian
> >
> >
>
>



-- 
Byron Ellis (byron.ellis at gmail.com)
"Oook" -- The Librarian