[R] If statement generates two outputs

[Carl Witthoft]

 >From: Wacek Kusnierczyk <Waclaw.Marcin.Kusnierczyk_at_idi.ntnu.no>
 >Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:58:49 +0100


 >just for fun, you could do this with multiassignment, e.g., using the 
 >(highly experimental and premature!) rvalues:

 >    source('http://miscell.googlecode.com/svn/rvalues/rvalues.r') 
 >if (TRUE)

 >       c(df1, df2) := list(4:8, 9:13)

 >    dput(df1)
 >    # 4:8
 >    dput(df2)
 >    # 9:13


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Now THAT's what I call an overloaded operator!   ^_^

But seriously:  can someone explain to me what's going on in the 
rvalues.r code?  I tried a simple experiment, replacing ":=" with a 
"colec" in the code, and of course the line

c(df1, df2) colec list(4:8, 9:13)


just gives me a "syntax error" response.   Clearly I need a pointer to 
some documentation about how the colon and equals sign get "special 
treatment somewhere inside R.

thanks
Carl