
Charles,
 
I don't consider packages as up-grades, i consider them as enhancements ..... When a new R version is in place you cannot up-grade your old R version, you have to do a new installation and re-load all the packages you used to have and delete / un-install the old version.... of course you can customize how you do this but it is not an up-grade per se as you would go for example from "softname" v.3 to "softname" v.4 using an up-grad einstead of a full installation version. New versions of R are always full versions ..... while this does not bother me a bit since now i have a way of installing everything with very little hassle, it may confuse and even frustrate others less dedicated to using R. So - in my opinion - for a novice in R this might be a "minus". 
 
Monica> From: Charles.Annis@StatisticalEngineering.com> To: pisicandru@hotmail.com; r-help@r-project.org> Subject: RE: [R] Pros and Cons of R> Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 12:24:49 -0400> > What do you mean, "there are no up-grades?" There are 1,401 ancillary> packages - all free. That sounds like upgrades to me.> > Of course there is no *perfect* beginner's book, but Peter Dalgaard's> Introductory Statistics with R (Paperback), Springer, 3d printing edition> (January 9, 2004) is pretty close. If you don't know much statistics, it> will teach you statistics while teaching you R. If you already know> statistics, it will demonstrate how to do familiar things using R.> > > Charles Annis, P.E.> > Charles.Annis@StatisticalEngineering.com> phone: 561-352-9699> eFax: 614-455-3265> http://www.StatisticalEngineering.com> > > -----Original Message-----> From: r-help-bounces@r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces@r-project.org] On> Behalf Of Monica Pisica> Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 12:00 PM> To: r-help@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/O> neMapProdWithRGraphics.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@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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