Le dimanche 08 mars 2009 à 13:22 -0500, Dirk Eddelbuettel a écrit : > On 8 March 2009 at 13:27, Duncan Murdoch wrote: > | But we don't even have that data, since CRAN is distributed across lots > | of mirrors. > > On 8 March 2009 at 19:01, Emmanuel Charpentier wrote: > | As far as I can see (but I might be nearsighted), I see no model linking > | package download to package use(s). Data may or may not become available > > Which is why Debian (and Ubuntu) use the _opt-in package_ popularity-contest > that collects data on packages used and submits that to a host collecting the > data. This drives the so-called 'popcon' statistics. > > Yes, and there are many ways in which one can criticise this data collection > process. But I fail to see how __not having any data__ leads to more > informed decisions. > > Once you have data, you have an option of using or discarding it. But if you > have no data, you have no option. How is that better?
I question 1) the usefulness of the effort necessary to get the data ; and 2) the very concept of data mining, which seems to be the rationale for this proposed effort. Furthermore (but this is seriously off-topic), I seriously despise the very idea of "popularity" in scientific debates... "Everybody does it" is *not* a valid argument. Nor "Everyone knows...". Emmanuel Charpentier ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.