If I could speak for myself, I first heard of R in 2018, when a Course on biostatistics was offered to the Health Secretariat in my State (Minas Gerais, Brazil). At that time, I found the software complex:
"... its use will require an understanding of its operation, which implies knowing how it works with data and the proper nomenclature that it gives to its objects and the proper syntax of its functions to perform analyzes on its objects. It seemed like a lot of truck for our little sand, that is, it would be like learning to drive a truck or pilot a ship, when, in our case, a wheelbarrow or a Kombi does the job." One year later, I revised my concepts: " Now I know a little more about R. Although the initial interface seems arid, with the > symbol waiting for us to type something, with a little knowledge of how the program is organized, it is possible to obtain graphs and maps, with much greater plasticity than achieved with TerraView, for example. It is a powerful tool, with the availability of numerous packages, which greatly expand the possibilities of analysis. Furthermore, the software and packages are accessible, that is, they are not paid, and there is a vast amount of content on the internet about how to work with the tool. So I review the perception I had a year ago, and I now understand that mastering the tool is essential for us to manipulate data and carry out analyzes within the secretariat." Today I can handle some tasks within R, although I can say I have not learned it yet. In the next IACRs (International Association of Cancer Registries) Scientific Conference, I will present an abstract concluding that "Software R has proved to be a valuable tool for analyzing registry data. It could easily handle mortality system databases, with almost 200 thousand lines, each year. The use of this software should be encouraged in the registries, although at first it may seem difficult to use." Gil Pena Coordenador do Registro de Câncer de Base Populacional de Belo Horizonte Coordenação de Vigilância do Câncer Diretoria de Informações Epidemiológicas Superintendência de Vigilância Epidemiológica Subsecretaria de Vigilância em Saúde Secretaria de Estado da Saúde - Governo de Minas Gerais ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see 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.