[R] mailing list for basic questions - preliminary sum up

[Martin Wegmann]

Hello, 

Roger Bivand wrote:
> appropriate light. One basic characteristic seems to be that if the
> question does indicate seriousness about trying to analyse data, respect
> for the task at hand, then predictably lots of good advice comes quickly.

yes, I also experienced that (from the questioner point)

> I'm also not too sure about the "learning R" question. Of course there is
> the GUI/CLI issue, and the "very many defaults already filled in" issue,
> but actually market share really isn't a driver here, is it? Isn't this

ok, I get this point - R can be seen more as "philosphie" than "commercial" 
thinking of getting market shares.
i think it is a trade-off between "spreading" R and being a member of a "geek" 
statistic program (that's what SPSS user in this dept. think about us R 
user ;-)  )

> more about attitude and motivation in taking an active role in analysing
> data? If your research question really itches, what should it take to stop
> you learning R (or associated packages)?

probably the steep learing curve but of course if you really want, you will 
suceed and explorere the advanteages of R. 
That sounds a bit like an elitist point of view - who really wants to use R 
will eventually suceed.....but that's like everywhere in the opensource 
community - to get started with Linux or other software is still quite rough 
but a lot of people are doing it because of various reasons. This community 
has a great support mentality and are more worth than any commercial support 
and therefore it is possible. 

but I don't want to start a flame about this issue (elitist geek 
software ;-)  )and therefore I would like to propose a "evaluation" - better 
in a separate mail to keep the overview.

regards Martin