> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Thomas Lumley > Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2006 6:22 PM > To: John Chambers > Cc: R-devel@r-project.org > Subject: Re: [Rd] "+" for character method... > > On Sat, 26 Aug 2006, John Chambers wrote: > > > Well, two comments, in two non-compatible directions. > > > > 1. I have to say that I find the idea of using "+" to > paste character > > strings together aesthetically ugly. > > Hear, hear! > > In a language where you can define new binary operators > easily making the same operator do addition and concatenation > really doesn't seem a good idea. It is done in some other > languages, but so is using the same operator for printing and > multiplying by powers of two. > > Lack of commutativity is obvious, but lack of associativity > seems much more dangerous. Suppose x, y, and z are a mixture > of strings and numbers. > Hands up everyone who knows (without cheating) whether x+y+z > would be interpreted the same way in R (with the current > parser) as in Java or Delphi or Python (and are these all the > same?). Which of > "two + two = " + 2 + 2 > 2 + 2 + " = two + two" > would be correct?
"two + two = " * 2 + 2 2 + 2 * " = two + two" are both "correct" :-)) Latchezar Dimitrov Analyst/Programmer Wake Forest University School of Medicine However the opinons are mine only. > > -thomas > > Thomas Lumley Assoc. Professor, Biostatistics > [EMAIL PROTECTED] University of Washington, Seattle > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel