[plt-scheme] Scheme and R

R is a free, open-source language for statistical computing that is 
gaining in popularity (to the extent that the New York Times has written 
about it). The required stats course that our students take has 
apparently been using it for a while.

One of the inspirations for R was Scheme. R is not purely functional, 
but has lexical scoping, closures, and many built-in higher-order 
functions.

I'm wondering if anyone on this list has experience with teaching R or 
with making explicit the connections between R and Scheme. I'd like to 
take more notice of this in our first-year CS classes, and help prepare 
students for the use of R in their second-year stats class. --PR