> -----Original Message----- > From: Discuss [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Timothy Rice > Sent: 05 May 2016 13:27 > To: GRANT Alistair <[email protected]> > Cc: [email protected]; Dirk Eddelbuettel > <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Discuss] Word and PowerPoint "all wrong"?
> The fact of the matter is, Excel has been demonstrated time and again to be > not just inefficient for scientific analysis but usually out-and-out wrong. [citation needed] I use what I consider to be the best tool for the job at hand. If I'm writing a short document, I'll probably grab Word (or LibreOffice). If I'm writing something long, or maths-heavy, and my co-authors permit, it'll be LaTeX. Similarly, if I just want to get a quick look at a small amount of data, and mess around with it interactively, I'll often go to Excel. If there's more data, or I want to do something that isn't straightforward in Excel, or it's an analysis that I'll need to repeat or that has to be reproducible, then I'll reach for R or Matlab. The right tool for a given job will vary from person to person - for some, the overhead of moving from a visual environment to a programming-oriented one is very low, while for others it's very high. I do not consider it my business - or SWC's business - to tell other people that they are using the wrong tool for their job. What *is* SWC's business, IMHO, is to introduce people to some good tools and then let them make their minds up as to what they use. > You question who am I to question other academics? Well, the academia I > know does consist of academics holding each other to high standards. I didn't > get my own degree by being patted on the back every time I produced a pie > chart in Excel. No, you got your degree for doing good science. I doubt very much that your examiners cared very much what software - if any - you used to do this. Stating that people who are happy with excel do not belong in academia is just plain offensive, to (tens of?) thousands of people. > Use Excel if you want. Just don't pretend that you're using sensible tools and > don't ask me to put sugar on top when I tell you you're using crap software. I don't think SWC instructors should be telling anybody that they are using crap software, with or without sugar. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org
