[R] A "rude" question

[Michael Grant]

Ming,

You have received a number of excellent replies to
your question and should really consider them. Here is
another point--really extending a Bill Venables
comment:

"If people were out to push dodgy software, this is
not the way they'd go about it."

Definitely! Look at the requirements for submitting a
package to R. While the required documentation and
uniform approach mandated do not automatically equate
to V&V'ed code it is a strong indication of commitment
of the R core and contributing communities. The
imposition of these standards by the core team and the
time committed to the project vis-a-vis development,
the help list, etc. speaks volumes about the quality
of  R. Rest assured such commitment is not the norm.

That being said, I do respectfully disagree with Dr.
Rossini in one minor detail ;O). It is not 'extremely
paranoid' to  re-code in another language and
definitely not so to do hand calculations! Murphy's
Law is relentless in all matters! If you are like most
of us (all of us?) you will find errors in your own
coding and maybe rarely an R bug. 

BTW, since you are starting out in R...voraciously
read the documentation, helplist, newletter, and other
free and commercial material on R, work thru the
examples relevant to you area of endeavor, read more,
code more, read more, code more, read more, code
more.... The facility with R that you gain as a result
will reward you multifold down the road.

Best regards,
Michael Grant

P.S. Whenever you upgrade R, read the CHANGES, NEWS
files, etc. R does evolve--even the core--although it
is very controlled and managed. (You will learn of
bugfixes there too.)


--- msck9 at mizzou.edu wrote:

> Dear all, 
>  I am beginner using R. I have a question about it.
> When you use it,
>  since it is written by so many authors, how do you
> know that the
>  results are trustable?(I don't want to affend
> anyone, also I trust
>  people). But I think this should be a question.
> 
>  Thanks,
>  Ming
> 
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