Have you looked at the Rexcel functionality (this allows access to R from within Excel, less learning curve for people enamored with Excel). There is also Rcmdr which is a GUI version (also available through Rexcel) which also shows the commands that would generate the same results. There are other GUIs, but I don't know much about them.
These may give alternatives for you to consider. -- Gregory (Greg) L. Snow Ph.D. Statistical Data Center Intermountain Healthcare [email protected] 801.408.8111 > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:r-sig-teaching- > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Christophe Genolini > Sent: Saturday, October 03, 2009 5:03 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [R-sig-teaching] Rlight, a simplified version of R for very > basic tools > > Hi the list, > > _**** In short ****__* *_ > R is too complex for basic level non statistician students especially > when they compare it to the %$*#& Excel. It could be interesting to > create a package that would propose the very basic tools with a very > simplified structure. > > > _**** More precisely ****__* *_ > Reading this list, I have the feeling that R is less and less for > specialist, more and more for occasional users. On my side, I am > teaching R to sports student... Statistics is definitely NOT their > favorite topic. They just need to be basic user: they need to know how > to compute a mean, median, some basic test (parametric or not), some > regression. They also need to be able to deal with real data with > missing value. > To their point of vu (point of vu that I share most of the time), one > major difficulty in R is the "non uniformity" of syntaxes: > > - Why does median not work on ordered factor? > - Why does cor(age,size,na.rm=TRUE) not work? > - Why does summary report the quartiles but not the standard deviation? > - Why is it t.test(age~groupe) and cor.test(age,size)? > - Why is it boxplot(age) and barplot(table(age))? > - Why is it as.numeric but ordered? > - Sir, we hate changing the working directory and using the %$*#& > function "read.csv". Why not stopping working on R and start using > Excel > again, like in all other classes with all the other teachers? (I do NOT > share this one :-) ) > - ... > > The calculation of a statistics relatively to a specific modality (like > calculation of the mean(size) but only for men then for women) is also > a > basic needs, one of the first things they want to do. But > unfortunately, > it is very complicated: it needs the introduction of vector, logical > operator, lines selection using a logical vector. And every syntax > mistake is fatal. Under Excel, you need to know how to sort the data, > then use the function "=mean"... > > It is why I start to create a package (called "R light" but that can > change) that would propose a simplified and more uniform version of the > tool that low levels user need (call the "light tools"?). The syntax > could be very simple but should suffer NO exception: > > function(variable) : works on a variable > function(variable~groups): works on a variable relatively to each group > modality. > Then Lmean will compute the mean, Lvar will compute the variance, > Lmedian the median and so on. > > *_*** Examples *** _* > > age <- c(15,16,18,15,16,12) > > groups <- c("M","F","M","F","M","F") > > > Lmean(age) > [1] 15.33333 > Lmean(age~groups) > F M > 14.33333 16.33333 > > > Lvar(age) > [1] 3.866667 > > > Lvar(age~groups) > F M > 4.333333 2.333333 > > > marks <- ordered("A","B","A","C","B","C",levels=c("C","B","A")) > > Lmedian(marks) > [1] B > Levels: C < B < A > > Lmedian(marks~groups) > F M > C A > Levels: C < B < A > > > That way, R would be simpler than Excel... > > > *_*** What next? *** _* > So I start to create the package but it takes me a lot of time (like > always when creating a package). Since this can be useful for a lot of > R > teacher, I think that some people might be interested in collaborating > on this project. Several needs: > > - Brain storming on what should be in Rlight: What are the tools those > basic users that know nothing on computing and not that much on > statistics do need? > - Brain storming on the syntax: I define "function(variable)" and > "function(variable~groups)", some other syntax might be interesting > specially for more advance concept. > - Writing documentation: well you guess it by reading this email, I am > NOT a native English speaker... > - Writing some L function. > > You will find the code that already exists and some tests here: > http://christophe.genolini.free.fr/aTelecharger/Rlight.r > > > > Christophe Genolini > > Associate professor > University of Paris X > INSERM U699 > R package maintainer: > - r2lUniv > - kml > R Tutorial (on CRAN): > - A (Not So) Short Introduction to S4 > - Petit Manuel de S4 > - Lire; Compter ; Tester... avec R > - Construire un Package > - R, bonnes pratiques > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > _______________________________________________ > [email protected] mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-teaching _______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-teaching
