[R] R or Splus?

[Robert Gentleman]

If you really want help it is generally best to include real examples
and to be explicit about what is not working. If on the other hand you
just want some reassurance that Splus is indeed a commerical package
it is.
If your question is whether R is reliable, I believe that there are a
large number of users that are quite happy with its performance. There
are also some that aren't.
We do come with a money back guarantee though ;-)

On Tue, Dec 05, 2000 at 03:41:16PM +0000, J.Brainard at uea.ac.uk wrote:
> 
> It's been suggested I use R, I suppose because my employer is too skint to pay 
> for a copy of Splus.
> 
> But.... it doesn't seem to be stable.  I was trying to do some ordinary regression
> and stepping through a model.  I was trying to set up a model ('kitchen_sink') in
> which to put all my model parameters.  Then I wanted to use step() to see what it
> would reduce the model to.  I couldn't even get started though.  I would specify 
> the same model again and again, with just a few of the possible variables, and
> sometimes lm() would fall over and return an error message, sometimes the regression
> ran fine.  I got fed up and ftp'd the original tables up to a machine running
> Splus, where the models ran fine, every time, with all kinds of specifications.
> 
> Is this a normal experience?  Is R buggy or what?  I note the other email that
> R can't handle files named x.  If I can use Splus, should I just do that?

  This is simply untrue. Perhaps you could read those discussions
  somewhat more carefully. Both R and Splus have some problems with
  scoping at times. This is being fixed in R, you would have to ask
  the folks in Seattle if they are fixing their versions. However,
  since they have been around longer most people know how to program
  around their problems. R is somewhat newer but that knowledge
  combined with accurate bug reports (are you indeed attempting to
  report a bug?) will help.

> 
> (Alternative is graphics-interface-only SPSS, and given that I've never used it,
> I'm working on remote machines, from home, with no manuals handy, that is something I 
> should really wish to avoid :-).
> 
> -julii
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| Robert Gentleman                 phone : (617) 632-5250                   |
| Associate Professor              fax:   (617)  632-2444                   |
| Department of Biostatistics      office: not yet                          |
| Harvard School of Public Health  email: rgentlem at jimmy.dfci.harvard.edu   |
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