[R] What is the best way to have "R" output tables in an MS Word format? (shaping R core)

Fri May 7 14:22:25 CEST 2010

For simply doing tables xtable has done some nice work for me.

--- On Fri, 5/7/10, Joris Meys <jorismeys at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Joris Meys <jorismeys at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [R] What is the best way to have "R" output tables in an MS Word format? (shaping R core)
> To: "Duncan Murdoch" <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com>
> Cc: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Received: Friday, May 7, 2010, 6:48 AM
> Well, there's always RExcel to get
> all your R stuff into something M$
> Ruffice can understand. And they're even working on a Word
> link if I got it
> right.
> 
> Cheers
> Joris
> 
> On Fri, May 7, 2010 at 12:24 PM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com>wrote:
> 
> > chrishold at psyctc.org
> wrote:
> >
> >> I've changed the subject line a bit here as Max is
> asking such a
> >> fundamental question.
> >>
> >> Max Kuhn sent the following  at 01/05/2010
> 19:22:
> >>
> >>
> >>> Chris,
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >> ...
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>> Why is it R Core's job to fulfill your wants
> and desires? I have a
> >>> hard time thinking that very busy people would
> spend extra time doing
> >>> something that they may or may not have a
> direct need for. Write it
> >>> yourself or get a group of people together to
> do it. That what we did
> >>> with odfWeave (for better or worse). If the
> task is beyond what you
> >>> feel you can do, fund it.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >> Ouch.  OK. I'm hugely grateful for your work
> on odfWeave Max and sorry
> >> that Open Office isn't a solution for me at the
> moment.  However, I
> >> don't think I'm being unreasonable or selfish.
> >>
> >> 1) Certainbly it's not R core's job to fulfil my
> wants and desires and
> >> they will have ways to discuss what would
> strengthen R for lots of us.
> >> Clearly I can submit a wishlist item to the R
> bugzilla and I should but
> >> that's very particulate: how can the team find out
> of wishes are common
> >> or would help increase use of R?
> >>
> >> There are files of key R core team members' wish
> lists on the R site but
> >> almost none relate in any way to output and some
> appear to be years old.
> >> I've worked with R (about 14 years I think) and as
> I look particularly
> >> at the recent release notes, I see a lot of work
> went into changing the
> >> help system which is one sort of output from R and
> a huge amount of work
> >> went into transitions in the object orientation
> (S3 to S4).  I think
> >> that what I am suggesting is about a core issue of
> seeing
> >> a set of object properties for numeric output as
> including insertion of
> >> tabs, ideally as providing flexible presenting and
> viewing of all
> >> matrices, data frames and lists, and, some day,
> cross linkage of
> >> graphics into output.  Ideally, as with the
> capacity of R to export its
> >> graphics in a number of formats, I'd love to see
> this capitalising on
> >> the work you have done for ODF and others have
> done for TeX etc.
> >>
> >> These strike me as central object handling issues,
> not things that
> >> should for ever be offloaded to the
> libraries/packages.
> >>
> >>
> >
> > I don't think that because something is important it
> needs to be in the
> > part of R that R Core handles.  The things that
> need to be there are things
> > that can't be anywhere else.  Things that can be
> elsewhere should be
> > elsewhere, because the more that is in base R, the
> more time R Core spends
> > on maintenance, and the less time on development of
> base R or on the other
> > things we do (e.g. the things our employers pay us to
> do).
> >
> > We don't always follow this rule:  in some cases,
> things that could be
> > elsewhere are in base R because an R Core member
> doesn't mind taking on the
> > maintenance, and it is easier to put them in base R
> than to create a new
> > package for them.  (Sweave is an example of this;
> there has been talk of
> > moving it out of the base, but that hasn't happened
> yet.)
> >
> > But I don't think any members of R Core use any of
> those word processors
> > called MS Word, and I don't see any need for core
> support for producing
> > output for them.  R already produces structured
> objects with all the
> > semantics of XML objects (though it doesn't use that
> format to store them);
> > it is simply a matter of deciding what format you'd
> like things to be
> > displayed in, and then figuring out how to produce
> something in that format
> > in a way that MS Word will understand.  The first
> task is definitely
> > something within the range of an R user.  Getting
> it into some version of
> > .doc or .docx or whatever  is not at all easy,
> but it really has very little
> > to do with R.  It would make more sense to ask
> Microsoft to handle that part
> > than it makes to ask R Core to do it.
> >
> > Duncan Murdoch
> >
> >
> > 2) Do it myself: I wish! I'm a terrible programmer and
> work 50-70 hoursa
> > week in my main jobs (I'm so outspoken here at the
> moment partly
> >
> >  because I'm off work post-op.)  I'm quite a
> good psychotherapist and
> >> capable of working in several different modes of
> psychotherapy and with
> >> individuals, couples, groups and families and I'm
> a fairly competent
> >> researcher and clinical director.  I wish I'd
> been born or learned to be
> >> a better programmer as I wish I'd been more
> musical and able to dance
> >> but I'm not.  I can contribute ideas, help
> debug things and hope to
> >> contribute much more of this when I retire from
> the main jobs.  I have
> >> no links with programmers at work nor in my
> university location so I
> >> have no colleagues with whom I can form a team to
> do this.
> >>
> >> 3) Pay for it myself: I was pretty ignorant about
> ways of paying for
> >> R things.  I can't see me persuading my NHS
> employer to pay as we're
> >> contracting rapidly and don't officially use
> R.  If we had the
> >> outputting I'm describing in the R core I think I
> might be able to get
> >> us to stop paying some thousands of pounds a year
> for SPSS and might be
> >> able to shift say 1k in gratitude to R though NHS
> purchasing rules don't
> >> make that easy.  (That, I think, is one of
> the huge challenges to open
> >> source s'ware, if someone can tell me about ways
> to get organisations
> >> who have to justify their purchasing as we do
> manage to pay for open
> >> source development, I'd like to hear and I'll try
> to make it happen.)
> >>
> >> Prompted by your Email I have found the R project
> membership form and
> >> 'faxed it off with payment and will probably
> donate some more on top of
> >> that 25 euros.  However, I would love a way
> to make a donation
> >> that would encourage someone to do this bit of
> work but I'm currently
> >> unlikely, personally, to have the money to pay for
> all that's needed.
> >>
> >> Hope this helps explain my position.  I'm
> genuinely keen to hear others'
> >> views.  Very best to all,
> >>
> >> Chris
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> > ______________________________________________
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> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Joris Meys
> Statistical Consultant
> 
> Ghent University
> Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
> Department of Applied mathematics, biometrics and process
> control
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