[R] R or Splus?

[David James]

Hi,

J.Brainard at uea.ac.uk writes:
>It's been suggested I use R, I suppose because my employer is too skint to pay 
>for a copy of Splus.

I use (and like) both R and Splus.  In my case, it has nothing to do
with how much they cost: I know that my employer is more interested in
my productivity than in the cost (within reason, of course) of my data 
analysis software:-)

>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 
>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 *not* at all my experience with R.   Typically, I use some development 
(i.e.,"unstable") version of R, yet it rarely gives me any trouble.  (BTW
I'm puzzled by your impression that R can't handle files named x -- obviously 
a misunderstanding by someone.)

>(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

Both R and Splus have good online documentation (help pages and PDF version
of their user/programmer guides).  Again, this shouldn't be an issue.  
I'd suggest to take a closer look and decide for yourself
based on your needs and the functionality they provide;  if it costs
money,  well that's one of the tools you need to get your job done
(together with your desk, computer, telephone, fax, ....).

Regards,

David A. James
Statistics Research, Room 2C-253            Phone:  (908) 582-3082       
Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies              Fax:    (908) 582-3340
Murray Hill, NJ 09794-0636

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