[R] [friday topic]: what exactly is statistical computing

[Lucke, Joseph F]

Statistical computing perhaps is not so much a single topic as a family
of related topics (a la Wittgenstein) that share a lot in common but
perhaps very little is common to all. For example,
1. Statistical computing in contrast to statistical theory.
6. Statistical computing as a supplement to statistical theory.
2. Statistical computing as gaining insight through data visualization
3. Statistical computing for asymptotic analyses
4. Statistical computing for approximations to unknown distributions
5. Statistical computing for teaching demonstrations
7. Statistical computing for assessing behavior of statistics.

and so on.

Joe
-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch
[mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Roger D. Peng
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 1:07 PM
To: Wensui Liu
Cc: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch; Bos, Roger
Subject: Re: [R] [friday topic]: what exactly is statistical computing

This is indeed a "Friday" topic.  I think I understand the difficulty
that Wensui has.  I teach two classes, each with the phrase "statistical
computing" 
in the title, and yet they cover completely different topics.

-roger

Wensui Liu wrote:
> Thanks for your insight, Roger.
> 
> Actually, my question is not related to R only.
> 
> statistical computing is a popular topic recently. However, when I 
> check its meaning on wikipedia/google, I couldn't find it.
> 
> another reason why I asked is related to myself. I am very interested 
> in this area and maintaining a blog in this topic. however, when asked

> what 'statistical computing' is, I am not able to give a 
> well-verbalized answer.
> 
> 
> On 3/2/07, Bos, Roger <roger.bos at us.rothschild.com> wrote:
>> This means it comes with substantial statistical routines built-in.  
>> You could just as well use VBA or Java for your programming language,

>> but with those you would have to write pretty much any stat routine 
>> you need.  With R, since it is a 'statistical computing' language, 
>> you know that most of what you need has already been programmed, 
>> tested(?), and is ready to use.
>>
>> I have seen you on this list for a while.  You already know all this.

>> I am not sure why you are asking this question.
>>
>> Roger
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch 
>> [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Wensui Liu
>> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 9:43 AM
>> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
>> Subject: [R] [friday topic]: what exactly is statistical computing
>>
>> Dear List,
>> on www.r-project.org, the title says 'The R Project for Statistical 
>> Computing'.
>>
>> but what exactly is the definition of statistical computing?
>>
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> 

--
Roger D. Peng  |  http://www.biostat.jhsph.edu/~rpeng/

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