On 4/8/2014 3:56 PM, David Winsemius wrote:
On Apr 8, 2014, at 2:41 PM, Bert Gunter wrote:
Just for the fun of it, I searched for "R package moses extreme
reaction test" on google. The 8th hit was the package DescTools, but
that included the 3 earlier hits and responses from r-help.
So I guess the point is that "Learn to Search" may even be a bit over
the top -- is there anyone on the internet who does not use standard
search engines like google, bing, and yahoo?
I don't think I'm the only one. Using Spencer Graves' excellent package is very
convenient and has delivered many answers to questions posed on R help. It pops
up a browser window directly from an R console command. I like the fact that I
get an R help page with `findFn`. I suspect it has prevented many more
questions that we never see.
The other search tool I have used in preference to Google is Markmail. I find
Google to be sometimes non-specific and possesses an very annoying tendency to
give priority to Nabble citations. None of the first page Google citations
actually answered the question when I tried. Rseek was much better, but I have
found it to be less focused than sos::findFn. De gustibus non disputandem, I
suppose.
I suppose I should crack open Spencer's code and learn how to call Markmail and
Rseek from my console session, that is unless he accepts this feature request
and beats me to it.
1. I would happily accept code to generalize findFn{sos} to use
another search capability like Google, Markmail, Nabble or Rseek.
However, that might not be feasible, because the current code rests on a
database of R packages (CRAN, Bioconductor, plus a few others)
maintained by Jonathan Baron. When Jonathan stops maintaining that
database, that will be the end of findFn, unless someone else takes over
that maintenance.
2. Do you also use writeFindFn2xls{sos}? That produces an Excel
file with 3 sheets, the first of which is a summary by package. In
addition to the sort by count, maxScore and totalScore, I get the date
of the latest update, whether the package has a vignette, and the names
of author(s) and maintainer. That tells me whether the package is being
maintained and how easy it might be to learn. It is by far the fastest
literature search I know for anything statistical. In seconds, I can
have the outline for a talk on "R capabilities for ______________" (as
mentioned in the sos vignette ;-)
3. Thanks for the kind words about findFn.
Spencer
--
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph: 408-655-4567
web: www.structuremonitoring.com
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