[R] Problems in Recommending R

[Peter Dalgaard]

hadley wickham wrote:
>>>  1. avoid clicking on the "R version 2.8.1" link - that takes you to a
>>> directory listing of strangely named files

Yes, this is of course much harder than avoiding to read the two bullet 
points labeled "Getting Started"

>>>
>>>  2. recognise that you need to click on an CRAN (what is a cran?)

Clicking on the words "CRAN mirror" never comes to people's mind. I 
mean, it's not like the first line of the link explains the acronym, is it?

>>>  3. successfully select a mirror that is up-to-date (with no
>>> information about which mirrors are up-to-date)

Of course the R project website is required to keep track of that.

>>>  4. click Windows (ok, this one is easy)
>>>
>>>  5. guess that base is the "distribution" that you want

Yes, there are two links so people will take the other one.

>>>  6. phew, you're there (but don't follow the advice to download from a
>>> mirror near you or you'll be back at step 3)
>>>
>> Its even more confusing than that because actually you're not there
>> yet!  You have to click on the unobtrusive patched link and then
>> download that or you get the version with the bugs.
> 
> Wow, I'd never noticed that before!

However, you are only supposed to need it if you are one of the 
exceedingly rare users who happens to be bitten by a bug that went 
undiscovered through several weeks of user testing.

(Warning: The above may contain traces of sarcasm...)


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