[R] Final comment from a newbie

[Ronán Conroy]

As a person new to R, I joined the list. I am a long-term member of the 
Stata list, which has a tradition of being very helpful to newbies. 
Imagine my surprise when my first day's mail included a rough rebuke to 
someone for asking a simple question (including mentioning that the 
poster had been reprimanded about this sort of thing before).

In the week I've been on it, there have been questions I could not 
understand, struggling as I am with the basics of R syntax, which were 
answered, and questions I could understand, which were met with 
irritation and rebuke.

Made me decide not to post my hopelessly amateur question on getting R 
to remember my proxy settings between sessions...

It's reasonable to say that for every naive question there were at least 
two curt replies. Amazing how people can find the time to be rude, given 
how busy they must be.

Well, I'm signing off now. I will learn R, but from the book. And I will 
look forward to the time when the list divides into two lists: R-help 
and R-helpful.

R is a great project. It's a pity there's no forum that will help the 
struggling newcomer.

-- 

Ronan M Conroy (rconroy at rcsi.ie) 
Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics 
Royal College of Surgeons 
Dublin 2, Ireland 
+353 1 402 2431 (fax 2764) 
-------------------- 
Just say no to drug reps 
http://www.nofreelunch.org/