R has very good GUI packages that I have used -
R Commander RCmdr and Rattle rattle . Since I work on multiple packages with
constraints of time, I almost always use the GUI rather go through the
intricacies of command line .

The log of these GUIs shows the relevant R command that was used, so you can
actually learn the language also.

I have written about the ease of learning R , if you begin with these two
packages first and are working in a commercial data environment on


 http://decisionstats.com/2008/learning-r-easily-two-guis/

On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 9:30 PM, Monica Pisica <pisicandru@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>
> 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/OneMapProdWithRGraphics.htmltogether 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
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