Ummmm.... I cannot say how easy or hard R is to learn, but in response to the UCLA commentary:
> However, I > feel like R > is not so much of a statistical package as much as it is a statistical > programming environment that has many new and cutting edge > features. Please note: the first sentence of the Preface of THE Green Book (PROGRAMMING WITH DATA: A GUIDE TO THE S LANGUAGE) by John Chambers, the inventor of the S Language, explicitly states: "S is a programming language and environment for all kinds of computing involving data." I think this says that R is **not** meant to be a statistical package in the conventional sense and should not be considered one. As computing involving data is a complex and frequently messy business on both technical (statistics), practical (messy data), and aesthetic (graphics, tables) levels, it is perhaps to be expected that "a programming language and environment for all kinds of computing involving data" is complex. Personally, I find that (Chambers's next sentence) R's ability "To turn ideas into software, quickly and faithfully," to be a boon. But, then again, I'm a statistical professional and not a "casual user." Cheers, -- Bert Gunter Genentech Non-Clinical Statistics South San Francisco, CA "The business of the statistician is to catalyze the scientific learning process." - George E. P. Box ______________________________________________ [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
