[R] Documentation General Comments

Tue Apr 22 17:46:20 CEST 2008

Bert,

I don't think the documentation in of itself is the core of the problem
presented in the original post about this. The problem is one of
organization. I commented about it possibly being time for an exhaustive R
Guide (similar to those huge books put out for commercial software) that
compiles all available documentation. Most importantly, it would have a
cross-referencing feature. The documentation files have a See Also file but
they are incomplete and/or obsolete. In my case, I was exacerbated that it
took over an hour just to find the libraries needed to fully reproduce
output from SAS PROC FREQ. And, I thought, "Wow, I could have just written a
function."  But, why do that when the info is out there?  It just needs to
be more readily and easily accessible.  

But, now getting to the proposed solution of "then do something about
it"...are there any legal issues?  It would be time-consuming but not that
difficult to put help files online that are duplicates of the existing help
files with the exception that additional See Also terms are included.
Original text in an author help file would not be edited or deleted without
author permission. 

Another benefit is that other links could be added. For example, the
existing help files have an Examples section but more could be done with
this. Links could be provided for annotated examples or to other websites.

I'm glad to be involved in this.  I'm far from being a guru in R
programming; this would be a good way to contribute and to continue
learning.

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On
Behalf Of Bert Gunter
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 11:29 AM
To: r-help at r-project.org
Subject: Re: [R] Documentation General Comments

FWIW:

I consider the documentation of Core R to be one of its great strengths: it
is terse (read: to the point), detailed, and accurate. I find it eminently
useful and helpful. Indeed, it was why I made the decision some years ago to
switch from S-Plus to R (I readily acknowledge that S-Plus may have improved
its docs since then -- haven't looked at it in years). While I understand
that it may not suit everyone -- learning styles differ, after all -- may I
at least say that there is one user out here who is appreciative of the hard
work and care that has gone into the documentation. Far FAR better than
anything I could do!

-- Bert Gunter
Genentech

-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On
Behalf Of Greg Snow
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 8:16 AM
To: Beck, Kenneth (STP); r-help at r-project.org
Subject: Re: [R] Documentation General Comments

This is a case of you can't please everyone.  A while back there was
some complaint that "Introduction to R" spent to much time on talking
about the different types of variables, just the opposite complaint of
yours.

There are several other sources of documentation (look under the books
link on the R homepage or the contributed documentation link on any CRAN
site, also browse through the newsletter).  For more in depth
information on variable types and object oriented programming in R you
may want to invest in a copy of "S Programming" by Venables and Ripley.

If you have specific questions (about data types, or other) then tell us
what you have read and what you still do not understand and you are more
likely to get a useful answer.  (also read the posting guide that is
referenced at the bottom of almost all posts to the list).

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

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org 
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Beck, Kenneth (STP)
> Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 3:56 PM
> To: r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: [R] Documentation General Comments
> 
> I realize the R developers are probably overwhelmed and have 
> little time for this, but the documentation really needs some 
> serious reorganizaton.
> A good through description of basic variable types would help 
> a lot, e.g. the difference between lists, arrays, matrices 
> and frames. And, it appears there is some object-orientation 
> to R, but it is not complete. I can't, for instance find a 
> "metafile" method for a "recordedplot" type, using either the 
> variable direclty or the replayPlot() method. I am sorry to 
> post this, but I am really having trouble sorting out certain 
> methods in "R". The basic tutorial "Introduction to R" is so 
> basic, it hardly helps at all, then digging through 
> documentation is really an exercise in frustration. The 
> SimpleR is also so basic it is of little help other than to 
> just get started. I occasionally find answers in the mailing 
> list. See my later post on recordPlot for a good example. 
> 

______________________________________________
R-help at r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.

11:27 AM

Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.

11:27 AM