>>> Gabor Grothendieck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 09/20/05 11:31AM >>> >> Just one comment here lest we be arguing against a strawman. >> While I agree that reproducibility can be a problem with pivot tables >> if created interactively and this applies to just about anything you do >> in Excel if done interactively, it should also be realized that Excel is >> completely programmable, like R, using VBA or any language (including R!) >> via its COM object interface. >> >> The fact that Excel has both an interactive interface and a script-based >> interface whereas R has only a script-based interface puts it ahead, not >> behind, R in at least some respects.
Just one comment here lest we be arguing against a strawman. R has both interactive and script-based interfaces available and has for a long time (I remember working with an early port of S in the 1980's on VMS machines which if you used the old Tek10 graphics driver (anyone else remember the days of printer()...show() and tektronics(sp?) dumb terminals?) allowed you to click on a point in your graph and have it labelled). One of the big differences I see between R and Excel is that while they both have script and gui based interfaces, the gui interfaces for R (take Rcmdr for example) provide an aid to learning, while still encouraging the use of command lines, scripts, and functions, while Excel hides the script interface from all but experts and encourages non-reproducable clicking. Just because a software package has a capability does not mean much if the overall design promotes the use of a less desirable feature. I remember one job where before I came along they were using a spreedsheet to compute a column of numbers, highlighting and printing out those numbers, then hand entering these same numbers into a different spreadsheet. Dr. Burns has already posted the url that contains another of my experiances with intelligent people getting caught in one of Excel's traps (and yes Excel has a feature that would have prevented the trap, but Excel convieniently hid the need to use it). Greg Snow, Ph.D. Statistical Data Center, LDS Hospital Intermountain Health Care [EMAIL PROTECTED] (801) 408-8111 ______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
