[R] How to google for R stuff?

[cryan at binghamton.edu]

For Google searches, I find that throwing in the term cran on every search helps weed out irrelevant pages.

For example, instead of 

r residuals

I type

r cran residuals

--Chris Ryan

---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 20 May 2009 09:43:14 -0400
>From: Luc Villandre <villandl at dms.umontreal.ca>  
>Subject: Re: [R] How to google for R stuff?  
>To: Kynn Jones <kynnjo at gmail.com>
>Cc: r-help at r-project.org
>
>
>Kynn Jones wrote:
>> Hi!  I'm new to R programming, though I've been programming in other
>> languages for years.
>>
>> One thing I find most frustrating about R is how difficult it is to use
>> Google (or any other search tool) to look for answers to my R-related
>> questions.  With languages with even slightly more distinctive names like
>> Perl, Java, Python, Matlab, OCaml, etc., usually including the name of the
>> language in the query is enough to ensure that the top hits are relevant.
>>  But this trick does not work for R, because the letter R appears by itself
>> in so many pages, that the chaff overwhelms the wheat, so to speak.
>>
>> So I'm curious to learn what strategies R users have found to get around
>> this annoyance.
>>
>> TIA!
>>
>> KJ
>>
>> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> 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.
>>   
>Hi Kynn,
>
>I've had this problem too in the beginning. Luckily, my personal 
>experience has taught me that almost all relevant R-related information 
>can be found either by searching directly through the archives of the 
>different R-forums or by using the functions "RSiteSearch()" or 
>"help.search()". The reference manuals provided with each package 
>(easily accessible on CRAN) are also invaluable sources of information.
>
>Unfortunately, phrasing queries in a way that will yield relevant 
>results is sometimes hard. Knowledge of the terminology mostly comes 
>from experience, so patience is in order.
>
>Of course, as a last recourse, there's always the mailing list.
>
>Bottom line is, I suggest you try to avoid generic search engines and 
>concentrate your efforts on the different R-forums (note that there are 
>also package-specific forums).
>
>I suspect the more experienced R-users might have better strategies to 
>propose though...
>
>Cheers,
>-- 
>*Luc Villandré*
>/Biostatistician
>McGill University Health Center -
>Montreal Children's Hospital Research Institute/
>
>______________________________________________
>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.