Comparison of m2 and m3 works for me.

I use R-2.9.0 with lme4_0.999375-31,  Matrix_0.999375-30 on Windoze XP
Professional SP2.

Code is below.

Best,
Fabian

> sessionInfo()
R version 2.9.0 (2009-04-17)
i386-pc-mingw32

locale:
LC_COLLATE=German_Germany.1252;LC_CTYPE=German_Germany.1252;LC_MONETARY=German_Germany.1252;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=German_Germany.1252

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base

other attached packages:
[1] lme4_0.999375-31   Matrix_0.999375-30 lattice_0.17-25

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] grid_2.9.0  tools_2.4.1

> all(replicate(50, {
+ set.seed(1)
+ D <-  data.frame(y= rnorm(20,10), ff = gl(4,5),
+         x1=rnorm(20,3), x2=rnorm(20,7),
+         x3=rnorm(20,1))
+ m2 <- lmer(y ~ x1 + (x2|ff), data = D)
+ m3 <- lmer(y ~ (x2|ff) + x1, data = D)
+
+ identical(ranef(m2), ranef(m3))
+ }))
[1] TRUE

> set.seed(1)
> all(replicate(50, {
+ D <-  data.frame(y= rnorm(20,10), ff = gl(4,5),
+         x1=rnorm(20,3), x2=rnorm(20,7),
+         x3=rnorm(20,1))
+ m2 <- lmer(y ~ x1 + (x2|ff), data = D)
+ m3 <- lmer(y ~ (x2|ff) + x1, data = D)
+
+ identical(ranef(m2), ranef(m3))
+ }))
[1] TRUE

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