[R] Packages - a great resource, but hard to find the right one

[Felix Andrews]

On Nov 26, 2007 2:44 PM, hadley wickham <h.wickham at gmail.com> wrote:
> > As for who should do the review, I wouldn't trust so much any user as I
> > would an organization such as the JSS. If the latter is not possible, the
> > first alternative is better than nothing.
>
> Of course, it doesn't have to be one or the other, but both could be
> included.  It would be also nice to include:
>
>  *  lists of papers that cite that package (relatively difficult with
> current bibliographic data sources, but hopefully will be easier in
> the future)
>
>  * messages from the mailing lists (r-help, and announcements)
>
>  * easy access to changelogs (both human and computer generated - e.g.
> cranberries)
>
>  * links to buy or find in a local library accompanying books
>
>  * other packages produced by the same author, other packages on the same topic
>
>  * packages that dependent on this package, package that this package depends on
>
> And I'm sure there are many other things that I haven't thought of in
> 5 minutes of brainstorming.  I'd be interested in developing something
> like this, but I have to get my PhD finished first!
>

I agree that this kind of comparative review would be valuable. The
existing Topic Views are a good way in to a new field, and I think
these should be made more prominent if possible. I was using R for a
long time (more than a year) before I discovered them.

[[ On a side note, does the R Foundation have any money for formal
usability testing of the R website and/or software? ]]

I would like to see more information on the CRAN package web pages
that could indicate both the quality of a package, and also links to
other related packages:

1. A "Development Status" or "Status" field in the DESCRIPTION file,
such as they have on sourceforge.net projects (example:
http://sf.net/projects/filezilla) that could be one of, say,
"Unstable", "Testing", "Stable", or "Inactive".

2. A list of "tags" or "labels" (as in flickr.com, del.icio.us,
googlecode.com, etc; example http://flickr.com/photos/tags/). They
should be free-form, hyperlinked, and ideally a tag cloud would be
available.

3. Building on what Hadley suggested, hyperlinks to:
   * packages that depend on this one (a dynamically generated list?);
   * packages that this package depends on (there already, just link it);
   * related packages (designed for a similar problem), listed in a
"See Also" field?
   * packages by the same maintainer, or authors.

4. As others have suggested, a link to a relevant review or comments
page, if one exists.

Felix

-- 
Felix Andrews / $B0BJ!N)(B
PhD candidate
Integrated Catchment Assessment and Management Centre
The Fenner School of Environment and Society
The Australian National University (Building 48A), ACT 0200
Beijing Bag, Locked Bag 40, Kingston ACT 2604
http://www.neurofractal.org/felix/
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