Sentence:  For example, x ~ dbin(p.n) means that "x is distributed like the number of successes in n observations of a Bernoulli process." Inadvertent use of an "=" sign instead of a <WSD>twiddle</WSD> or an arrow is one of the most common reasons for a compilation error message. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A tilde.