[R] Reasons to Use R

[Frank E Harrell Jr]

Taylor, Z Todd wrote:
> On Monday, April 09, 2007 3:23 PM, someone named Wilfred wrote:
> 
>> So what's the big deal about S using files instead of memory
>> like R. I don't get the point. Isn't there enough swap space
>> for S? (Who cares anyway: it works, isn't it?) Or are there
>> any problems with S and large datasets? I don't get it. You
>> use them, Greg. So you might discuss that issue.
> 
> S's one-to-one correspondence between S objects and filesystem
> objects is the single remaining reason I haven't completely
> converted over to R.  With S I can manage my objects via
> makefiles.  Corrections to raw data or changes to analysis
> scripts get applied to all objects in the project (and there
> are often thousands of them) by simply typing 'make'.  That
> includes everything right down to the graphics that will go
> in the report.
> 
> How do people live without that?

Personally I'd rather have R's save( ) and load( ).

Frank

> 
> --Todd


-- 
Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chair           School of Medicine
                      Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University