I think that one big problem of Excel regarding readability of the calculation done is its non linear nature: mixing data and calculation on a 2D grid could look nice at first sight, but indeed, it turns into a nightmare to understand all the calculations actually done.
On the counterpart, reading a R script is like reading a book: providing you understand the language, the R script tells you a story from the beginning (reading of the raw data) to the end (final graphs and tables) in a linear way. Thus, it is the concept of Excel itself (the 2D/3D interactive spreadsheet) that makes it confusing. All the "nice" things you can do with Excel will never save it for the time lost to understand what a spreadsheet does (and thus, to debug it, or slightly change its calculation). Best, Philippe Grosjean Frank E Harrell Jr wrote: > Rolf Turner wrote: >> On 30/08/2007, at 8:49 AM, Greg Snow wrote: >> >>> Erich Neuwirth said: >>> >>>> -----Original Message----- >>>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Erich Neuwirth >>>> Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 12:43 PM >>>> To: r-help >>>> Subject: Re: [R] Excel >>>> >>>> Excel bashing can be fun but also can be dangerous because >>>> you are makeing your life harder than necessary. >>> My experience differs, so far using excel (other than as a table >>> layout >>> program) has made my life harder more times than it has made it >>> easier. >> <Remainder of message deleted.> >> >> Bravo!!! Very well and very cogently expressed! >> >> cheers, >> >> Rolf Turner > > Yes! In addition I'd like to stress that the Excel model represents > non-reproducible research. > > Frank Harrell > > ______________________________________________ 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.
