Dave wrote: > Hi, > > I've looked through the archives and seen several posts discussing > technical differences between R and S(plus). It appears to me that R can > likely functionally replace Splus for my situation, but I'm more interested > in looking at the risks and benefits of moving from Splus to R from a > (project) management point of view. > > Background (a bit wordy, I'm afraid): > > - I'm not a stats guy, but rather a project manager responsible for an > internal application that utilizes Splus as a back-end analysis engine to > analyze manufacturing data at a med/large company. > > - I really don't know why Splus was chosen as the analysis engine for this > app - that choice was made long before I inherited the project. > > - The developer currently in charge of the Splus code is not a stats guy > either, but he is a very talented programmer that has been to one Insightful > course and taught himself enough to maintain the existing code (the original > authors are long gone). > > - While there is quite a large quantity of existing code that is used by > our application, I don't believe that it is terribly complex, from an applied > statistics point of view. Using Splus may be over-kill from a functionality > standpoint, but we just haven't had the time to re-write in a more > "appropriate" package - even if we knew what that more appropriate package > might be. > > - With the imminent release of Splus 8, I'm feeling uncomfortable with the > risk associated with remaining on Splus 2000, which we are currently using. > ***Comments on this point would be appreciated.*** > > - The developer was able to modify the existing code to run in Splus 7. > Unfortunately, the code is significantly slower than before, and Insightful > claims this is due to a change to the S language (at version 6) that was out > of their control (and one reason that they bought the S language rights). > > - We have found Insightful's telephone support to be rather unresponsive, > and not very helpful, other than to recommend their consulting services. > Obtaining consulting services from Insightful to improve performance has > proved challenging (don't ask), and if we ever actually do receive any > consulting services from them, it will no doubt be quite expensive. > > (if you are still with me, thank you) > > I see our realistic options as: > > A) Stick with Splus with the assumption that eventually, Insightful will > help us migrate our code to the latest release, and performance will be > comparable to what it is today. The advantage of this is working with a > known entity, if not one we are very pleased with. In addition, if we can > get the relationship to work, we can hopefully "outsource" future statistics > development and support to Insightful. > > The disadvantage is that it is costing us quite a bit of $$$ to maintain a > relationship that we are not really happy with. Incidentally, I'm not > intending to bash Insightful here - it may just be that we are not a good fit > for each other. > > B) Drop Splus for R with the assumption that migrating to R and rewriting > to improve performance will be little more difficult than rewriting by > ourselves in Splus. The obvious advantage is the cost savings, which is very > significant. In addition, based on the archives I've read, it appears that > there is a very responsive and helpful R community. > > The disadvantage is that we may be committing to maintaining statistical > expertise in-house, whereas we were hoping to be able to outsource some or > all of it (to Insightful). In addition, we will be leaving behind an entity > that has a mailing address, phone number, and stock symbol for one that is > represented "only" by a mailing list - I'm rather conservative and risk > averse. > > C) Stick with Splus and either find some consulting help outside of > Insightful or slog away internally. I suppose that we could even end our M&S > contract with Insightful and just continue to use Splus, knowing that we will > never receive any releases newer than 8.x nor any future support. > > (almost done) > > So, I'd like to hear opinions of whether you think that the benefits of > moving to R outweigh the risks. Listing additional benefits and risks that I > have not identified would be appreciated. I'm particularly interested in > hearing from anyone that has made this same S -> R transition in a business > environment. > > Also, does anyone have any recommendations for either Splus or R > consultants, other than Insightful? I would prefer someone who is willing to > work remotely, rather than anyone having to travel. > > Thats it. > > Thanks for your time, > Dave
Do you also write anonymous messages to Insightful? No surprise that you receive unconvincing replies. Beside beeing impolite, it is also hard to recommend consultants in such a case: If you live in New Zealand, it certainly is not that helpful to recommend someone in Germany ... Uwe Ligges > __________________________________________________ > > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > 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. ______________________________________________ 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.
