[R] newbie where to look question

[Marc Schwartz]

On Tue, 2006-01-03 at 22:56 -0500, Mark Leeds wrote: 
> I don't want to bother anyone
> with specific questions
> because I am a R newbie and
> I see that there is TON ( emphasis on
> Ton ) of documentation
> out there but could
> someone just tell me the
> best placed to look/read
> for learning about ( for R-2-2.1 in Windows )
>  
> .Rprofile
> .REnviron.
> .Rdata
>  
> .First function ( analogous to the one in Splus ).
>  
> Analog of Splus Chapter 
>  
> Basically, I want to learn how to start R so that
> my own source code and various
> packages are already available when
> I start up and how to make separate .Data ( I used to
> do this in Splus with Splus Chapter ) directories etc.
>  
> I am willing to fight through it and try to figure it out
> myself but there's so much stuff on the net in terms
> of threads etc that I might be helped by knowing the best
> place to start to learn. Thanks.


Mark,

One of the best places to start looking is actually the R e-mail list
Posting Guide, for which there is a link at the bottom of every e-mail
that comes through the list:

  http://www.r-project.org/posting-guide.html

Much of what you want to cover is in An Introduction to R, which is
available from the menus in the Windows version or online at the main R
web site under Manuals. 

Additional information on your specific questions are available
using ?Startup and ?.First from within an R session.

For Chapters, see ?save and ?load, which I believe will provide for
parallel functionality in a fashion.


The main R FAQ:

http://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-FAQ.html

and the R Windows FAQ:

http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/rw-FAQ.html

are good resources as well. If you are transitioning from S-PLUS, you
might want to pay particular attention to section 3.3 of the main R FAQ
on the differences between R and S-PLUS.

Finally, thanks to Andy Liaw and Jon Baron, there is there RSiteSearch()
function, which will enable you to search the e-mail list archives and
documentation online from within an R session. See ?RSiteSearch.

HTH,

Marc Schwartz