[R] Pros and Cons of R

[Patrick Burns]

I think it is a fairly safe bet that at any given time there
are numerous 64-bit R sessions using more than 4GB
of memory -- I periodically have one.

In my opinion 64-bit implementation is definitely in the
"pro" column. It is as transparent going from 32-bit to
64-bit as moving between 32-bit platforms.

As for installation problems with Linux, some people do
have problems but I don't think that is the typical
experience.

Patrick Burns
patrick at burns-stat.com
+44 (0)20 8525 0696
http://www.burns-stat.com
(home of S Poetry and "A Guide for the Unwilling S User")

Monica Pisica wrote:
> Thanks for the heads up - i will add that to the "pros".
>  
> Monica> From: Horace.Tso at pgn.com> To: pisicandru at hotmail.com; r-help at r-project.org> Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 09:32:06 -0700> Subject: RE: [R] Pros and Cons of R> > On the 64-bit part, I tested 2.7.0 on a Dual Core Lenovo ThinkPad and was able to allocate memory beyond 2G. Have not done much else otherwise but it seems to work just fine.> > H> > -----Original Message-----> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Monica Pisica> Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 9:00 AM> To: r-help at r-project.org> Subject: [R] Pros and Cons of R> > > Hi,> > I am doing a very informal presentation for my office about R capabilities to deal with and analyze spatial data, display data and maps, and connections with GIS. I've used in my presentation info from the CRAN, the spatial Task view, and the more striking graphics examples from http://addictedtor.free.fr/graphiques/thumbs.php and NCEAS http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/scicomp/GISSeminar/UseCases/MapProdWithRGraphics/OneMapProdWithRGraphics.html together with examples of my own work.> > I am finishing with pros and cons about R and I am wondering if you can come up with other examples, or comments. Here they are:> > Pros:> > - R is a programming environment well suited for statistical analysis.> - R is open source and cross platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux).> - Fortran, C (C++), and Python wrappers are in place.> - Deals well with spatial data, has a robust graphical interface and has an active user group list / forum.> - External packages for R are almost daily increasing, most of them based on published up-to-date books and peer-reviewed articles.> - R related books - quite a few ....> > Cons:> > - R has a very steep learning curve.> - There is no perfect "beginner" book.> - Experience with other programming languages is a plus / minus.> - You can save scripts, but not *.exe.> - It is updated several times a year (good) but there are no up-grades.> - It seems that it is hard to install correctly under Linux.> - Everything you want to do is a command line, minimal GUI.> - Memory management problems (depends on your OS), especially when displaying big images at high resolution or working with huge matrices (hundreds of Mb).> > Also i am wondering if R works under 64 bit computers and if it takes advantage of it.> > Thanks,> > Monica> > _________________________________________________________________> > > Refresh_family_safety_052008> ______________________________________________> 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.
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