On 30-Jul-07 08:28:15, John Logsdon wrote: > I am trying to get a measure of how R compares in usage as a > statistical platform compared to other software. I would guess > it is the most widely used among statisticians at least by > virtue of it being open source. > > But is there any study to which I can refer? By asking this > list I am not exactly adopting a rigorous approach!
I don't know about that -- my own expectation would be that serious users of R are likely to be subscribers to the list. So maybe a good answer to your question would be the number of subscribers (which I'm sure Martin Maechler can find out). Of course, some people will have subscribed under more than one email address, so that would somewhat over-estimate the number of people who subscribe. But it can be traded off (to a somewhat unknown extent) against R users who do not subscribe. More to the point, though, is what you mean by "usage". If you simply mean "people who use", that's a matter of counting (one way or another). But there's "use" and "use". There's a lot of what I call "SatNav Statistics" being done, and I would guess that "SatNav statisticians" tend to go for the commercial products, since these have bigger and brighter displays, and the more mellifluous and reassuring voice-overs. (And never mind that the voice instructs you to turn left, at the level-crossing, onto the railway line). Most serious R users, I tend to think, are more likely to pull into a layby and unfold large-scale maps. And, when the need arises, they will get out and push. So, in "widely used among statisticians", it depends on what you mean by "statisticians". Where you will will probably get extra value from the R list is that many of our people will have extensive and very professional experience, not only with R, but with many of the other available packages, and be best placed to provide serious and thoughtful comparisons. Best wishes, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 30-Jul-07 Time: 10:18:21 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------ ______________________________________________ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch 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.