[R] A "rude" question

[Tim F Liao]

I'm in agreement with Tom with respect to all the points he
made but two in particular:

Open code: very useful and much easier (than other software)
to make sure the trustworthiness of the function/library.  I
often do go into the code and make sure this is what I want
and it is a good way to find out the "meaning" of certain
parts of the output and to learn others' programming tricks. 
And that's the power of R.

Pedigree of the contributors: top-notch.  I remember finding a
"bug" (having to do with detecting heteroscedasticity) in SAS
back in the early 90s and communicated to a SAS tech.  SAS was
considered the industry's standard back then, but contributed
mostly by professonal programmers.  In comparison, R's
libraries are contributed by statisticians who are at the
forefront of statistical methods research.

Tim

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 14:15:31 +0800
>From: "Mulholland, Tom" <Tom.Mulholland at dpi.wa.gov.au>  
>Subject: RE: [R] A "rude" question  
>To: <msck9 at mizzou.edu>, <r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch>
>
>What makes you trust any software? 
>
>There are some obvious points. First of all the code is open
so if you know enough you can actually read the code and make
sure it does what you want. Secondly you can replicate a
process using two pieces of software and compare the results.
You can check the archives and you will find a number of posts
that talk about the results produced by R and how they compare
with other software. Typically R versus Excel or R versus SPSS
/ SAS. Just be careful as different answers does not
automatically mean one is wrong, and it certainly doesn't mean
R is wrong.
>
>Excel computes =ROUND(2.5,0) to be 3
>R computes round(2.5) to be 2
>
>As I understand it both are right, they are just using
different standards. I however have always used the latter and
rounded to the even number where the figure to be rounded lies
exactly at the halfway mark.
>
>Hang around this list for a short time and it will become
evident that if this software didn't work; the people using it
would have stopped using it long ago.
>
>Forget the commercial versus open software arguments that
raise their head from time to time. The question is how well a
piece of software is written / maintained & supported and not
issues of payment or the greater good. There is some woeful 
freeware, just as there is some woeful commercial products.
>
>The pedigree of the contributors to the base package is hard
to beat. I wouldn't know the pedigree of those who write the
other stats programmes, but I assume that R contributors are
right in there, with the best.
>
>As to packages. They must vary with quality, and people do
make mistakes. If you have something that in modern parlance
is "mission critical" it wouldn't matter which product you
had, you would test it to see that it fitted your requirements.
>
>You have raised a question that is often ignored or assumed.
But to really know the answer for yourself you need to test it
yourself or rely upon others that you trust. Whenever I start
using a package I make sure it does not just what it states it
can do, but also that it does what I want it to do.
>
>Tom
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: msck9 at mizzou.edu [mailto:msck9 at mizzou.edu]
>> Sent: Thursday, 27 January 2005 1:10 PM
>> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
>> Subject: [R] A "rude" question
>> 
>> 
>> 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
>> 
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide! 
>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>
>
>______________________________________________
>R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
>https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>PLEASE do read the posting guide!
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html