Is R like vi? "Vi is very user friendly. It's just picky about its friends."
m PS Although I got pretty adept with it, I still hate it. It is vile. (Speaking of, "Vile" is apparently a more user-friendly version of vi.) From: Hugh Foley [mailto:hfo...@skidmore.edu] Sent: Friday, August 22, 2014 1:50 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] statistics teaching: SPSS vs R Last year, some students from my adv stats course (taught with SPSS) asked me to teach them R in the spring. I knew nothing about R, but I'd enjoyed using Field's SPSS text to supplement Keppel & Wickens and knew that he had a version with R: http://www.amazon.com/Discovering-Statistics-Using-Andy-Field/dp/1446200469/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408732248&sr=8-1&keywords=andy+field+r I'm sure that Field is not to everyone's liking, but I enjoy his irreverent examples and his stats knowledge seems solid. Here's my take on my R adventure... It's admirable that people are actively working on R. It may well survive for a long time. That's the good news. The bad news is that people are actively working on R. That means that stuff breaks with new versions. (As in the many pieces of software incompatible with new versions of an OS.) For example, I think that some of the programs that Field developed for R (in a 2012 text) won't work with the newest versions of R for Mac. And a nice package for post hoc analyses wouldn't work with the latest Mac version (for Mavericks compatibility...and Yosemite is on the horizon...EEK). That said, I could get all the "big" analyses to work by using examples from Field's text within RStudio. (It may all be easier on a PC.) I would argue that with sufficient investment of time (but see David below), learning R with a supporting text (such as Field's) could lead to mastery of a package that would be even more powerful than SPSS in lots of ways. People seem to be developing statistical software for R all the time, while SPSS seems fairly stagnant for software that isn't business related. I'll be teaching adv stats again this fall (for the last time). I will surely use SPSS, but I may accompany each example in SPSS with R code. Hugh On Aug 22, 2014, at 10:13 AM, David Epstein <da...@neverdave.com<mailto:da...@neverdave.com>> wrote: In discussions of R, I tend to think of what programmer Jamie Zawinski once said about Linux: that it's "only free if your time has no value." :) --David Epstein da...@neverdave.com<mailto:da...@neverdave.com> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: hfo...@skidmore.edu<mailto:hfo...@skidmore.edu>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13238.0e762b65028402721e10bbc97ede52b7&n=T&l=tips&o=38043 or send a blank email to leave-38043-13238.0e762b65028402721e10bbc97ede5...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-38043-13238.0e762b65028402721e10bbc97ede5...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> -------------------------------------------------- Hugh J. Foley Department of Psychology Skidmore College Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 518-580-5308 http://www.skidmore.edu/~hfoley -------------------------------------------------- "And I still don't know if I'm a falcon, a storm, or an unfinished song." Rilke -------------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: marc.car...@bakeru.edu<mailto:marc.car...@bakeru.edu>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13029.76c7c563b32ad9d8d09c72a2d17c90e1&n=T&l=tips&o=38050 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-38050-13029.76c7c563b32ad9d8d09c72a2d17c9...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-38050-13029.76c7c563b32ad9d8d09c72a2d17c9...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments thereto ("e-mail") is sent by Baker University ("BU") and is intended to be confidential and for the use of only the individual or entity named above. The information may be protected by federal and state privacy and disclosures acts or other legal rules. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are notified that retention, dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify Baker University by email reply and immediately and permanently delete this e-mail message and any attachments thereto. Thank you. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=38100 or send a blank email to leave-38100-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
