[R] Reasons to Use R

[Greg Snow]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch 
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Alan Zaslavsky
> Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 9:07 AM
> To: R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: [R] Reasons to Use R

[snip]
 
> I have thought for a long time that a facility for efficient 
> rowwise calculations might be a valuable enhancement to S/R.  
> The storage of the object would be handled by a database and 
> there would have to be an efficient interface for pulling a 
> row (or small chunk of rows) out of the database repeatedly; 
> alternatively the operatons could be conducted inside the 
> database.  Basic operations of rowwise calculation and 
> cumulation (such as forming a column sum or a sum of 
> outer-products) would be written in an R-like syntax and 
> translated into an efficient set of operations that work 
> through the database.  (Would be happy to share some jejeune 
> notes on this.)

The biglm and SQLiteDF packages have made a start in this direction
(unless I am missunderstanding you), adding functionality to either of
those seems the best use of effort.

>  However the main answer to thie problem in 
> the R world seems to have been Moore's Law.  Perhaps somebody 
> could tell us more about the S-Plus large objects library, or 
> the work that Doug Bates is doing on efficient calculations 
> with large datasets.

This link gives an overview and some detail of the S-PLUS big data
library
http://www.insightful.com/support/splus70win/eduguide.pdf


>  	Alan Zaslavsky
>  	zaslavsk at hcp.med.harvard.edu



-- 
Gregory (Greg) L. Snow Ph.D.
Statistical Data Center
Intermountain Healthcare
greg.snow at intermountainmail.org
(801) 408-8111