[R] GUI's for teaching

[Timothy H. Keitt]

More generally, what someone needs to do is figure out a way to extend
the R documentation syntax to automatically generate input dialogs for R
functions. One could add a 'menu' field to build menu entries on the
fly. A long time ago, I used something similar (called Khoros) in which
you entered an interface definition and it generated both a gui and a
command-line interface. It also had 'graphical programming' which let
you link function inputs to outputs using a point and click interface.
Maybe if someone gets really ambitious...

Tim

On Wed, 2002-06-26 at 04:09, Agustin Lobo wrote:
> 
> My 2 cents (of Euro):
> 
> I was a user of Splus 3.x under unix and then 
> Splus 4.5 under windows, so I did pass from an environment
> with no GUI at all to another one in which an important effort
> had been done to complement the command
> line with a comprehensive menu. I must confess that
> I was dazzled by the Splus 4.5 environment, but after
> one week the only use of the menu was the object browser
> (I tend to have too many objects...) and the interactive
> editing of the graphics.
> 
> I do not think that R is an appropriate tool for people
> who would use it occasionally, there are lots of other
> packages for that, but I understand that a gui would
> help many people to start using R. It's not that they would actually
> use it a lot, it's rather that they would know that it exist and
> be in peace... Where I think that a gui does make a lot of sense
> is for people making an specific R-based application for the
> particular needs of a given lab.
> 
> Personally, where I miss a menu-based application is for
> interactive graphics. For example, after ploting
> two vectors with an R function, it would be nice
> to change the scale, colors etc.  , but perhaps it makes
> more sense to use or link to an specific application
> for this purpose (i.e. like with xgobi).
> 
> For some users that I know, the real problem
> with R is that it's very hard to carry out
> an analysis if you do not understand it. But,
> is this a disadvantage? Not at all, in particular
> for teaching.
> 
> Agus
> 
> Dr. Agustin Lobo
> Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra (CSIC)
> Lluis Sole Sabaris s/n
> 08028 Barcelona SPAIN
> tel 34 93409 5410
> fax 34 93411 0012
> alobo at ija.csic.es
> 
> 
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