> here is a language there are two ways to even assign a value to a name.
three ways if you count a <<- 1 for writing in global variables from inside functions (of course, not a recommended practice...)
I don't see what you point is though. So there are several ways to do the same thing in a language, so it's bad? Bad in what way?
As for the lapply, sapply, tapply, mapply, it's very well documented as to when and where you should use them. Sapply applies only on a single vector, and for generalization on larger data structures you use the other "applys". Nothing very hard to comprehend, and this is well explained in the official docs.
three ways if you count a <<- 1 for writing in global variables from inside functions (of course, not a recommended practice...)
I don't see what you point is though. So there are several ways to do the same thing in a language, so it's bad? Bad in what way?
As for the lapply, sapply, tapply, mapply, it's very well documented as to when and where you should use them. Sapply applies only on a single vector, and for generalization on larger data structures you use the other "applys". Nothing very hard to comprehend, and this is well explained in the official docs.