[R] R vs SPSS

[Frank E Harrell Jr]

Vito Ricci wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> in last weeks you discussed about R vs SAS. 
> I want to ask your opinion about a comparison between
> R and SPSS. I don't know this software, but some weeks
> ago I went to a presentation of this product. I found
> it really user-friendly with GUI (even if I'd prefer
> command line) and very usefull and simple to use in
> creation and managing tables, OLAP tecniques, pivot
> table.
> What you think about?
> Cordially
> Vito
> 

What worries me about SPSS is that it often results in poor statistical 
practice.  The defaults in dialog boxes are not very good in some cases, 
and like SAS, SPSS tends to lead users to make to many assumptions 
(linearity in regression being one of the key ones).
-- 
Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chair           School of Medicine
                      Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University