[R] two questions for R beginners

[Johannes Huesing]

Dieter Menne <dieter.menne at menne-biomed.de> [Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 08:39:14AM CET]:
> 
> 
> Patrick Burns wrote:
> > 
> > * What were your biggest misconceptions or
> > stumbling blocks to getting up and running
> > with R?
> > 
> > 
> (This derives partly from teaching)
> 
[...]
> 
> The concept of environment. With S it was worse, though.
> 

Agreed, though a beginner shouldn't be exposed to this aspect.
In the beginning you can analyse away before you are drowning
in variable names if you start with simple examples.

Which plotting parameters can be passed with basic plot functions,
and which ones have to be declared with par()? How do I 
set the min and max values for the x and y axis? (This 
aspect is drowned among all the options under ?par.)

Generally, the help pages are built like man pages, where
all options are given more or less equal consideration, even
if one option is used almost always and one only for esoteric
purposes. Given that help() is the most intuitive thing to
look for, it may be nice to include references to other
sources like rwiki if the respective page is good, even if
it may be disruptive wrt display device.

-- 
Johannes Hüsing               There is something fascinating about science. 
                              One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture 
mailto:johannes at huesing.name  from such a trifling investment of fact.                
http://derwisch.wikidot.com         (Mark Twain, "Life on the Mississippi")