[R] Another NEWBIE

[John Fox]

Dear Frank,

First, thank you for your kind remarks about the Rcmdr package.

Please note that the Rcmdr package is meant to be a basic statistics GUI for
R, to be used, for example, in an introductory statistics course. It covers
only a very small fraction of what's available in R.

Almost all of the statistical capabilities of the Rcmdr package are from
other packages. In particular, since you mention it, the factor-analysis
dialog simply calls the factanal() function in the stats package, which is
part of the standard R distribution. See ?factanal (or press the Help button
in the Rcmdr factor-analysis dialog) for details. As well, you can take a
look at the R commands that the Rcmdr generates.

Regards,
 John

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch 
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of F.Kalder
> Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2004 4:06 PM
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: Re: [R] Another NEWBIE
> 
> Hello,
> 
> And thanks again for your answers, perspectives and more...
> 
> So, as I understood, R can (nearly) do anything. So, also 
> because it's free, it is worth a try ;-).
> 
> I then next will start with reading some introductory texts. 
> And, wow, I'm quite 'overloaded', because there is so much 
> stuff available, I don?t know where to start and get a foot 
> in the door. I think I take one of the advices and will begin 
> with the "Notes on the use of R for psychology experiments 
> and questionnaires" text. 
> 
> The hint to the Rcmdr package was nice :-). That was nearly 
> like SPSS base system. When at last to know, which package to 
> use and for what kind of problem is another thing of course ...
> 
> Still I have had problems with importing SPSS files. But I 
> will read on it too.
> 
> The factor analysis tool of Rcmdr I didn?t fully understand. 
> So, there also will be much work to do.
> 
> I also noticed that my stats abilities aren?t very profound. 
> I?m so 'drilled' in doing 'standard stuff' and using more the 
> SPSS output than knowing exactly what I have to do, that I 
> will have to have a much closer look into a good book on 
> stats ... well, the Hair et al. is a good book of course, but 
> any recommendations are welcome :-).
> 
> You all wrote about the graphics in R and those in Rcmdr I 
> saw are to me mostly the same as in SPSS. Nevertheless, I 
> even don?t know when and for what to use that whole bunch of 
> graphics anyway ... still looking sometimes a bit envy on 
> huge 3D-graphics of multivariate bell curves and stuff on 
> book covers but can?t do anything with it.
> 
> The data entries by ASCII files are strange to me, because 
> I?m so used to work with a (the SPSS) spread sheet (mostly 
> the good old typing in from paper & pencil questionnaires), 
> that I don?t know how to handle that yet.
> Maybe using a SPSS- or at least Excel-like tool would be 
> helpful for that.
> 
> So, my next move will be reading the mentioned text on 
> questionnaires and then some basic introduction on R, knowing 
> then, how it principally works, what?s with the packages, how 
> to manage the data and so on ... I also think, I have to do 
> some homework on stats either ...
> 
> Thanks again ...
> 
> Frank
>