> "The best way to spread information is to tell someone that it is a secret, the best way to keep it secret is to put it in  > a manual."

==> Nice quote. ;-) The problem is not that there's too little information, rather there's so much. That's probably because R is so powerful, but it makes it tough to sieve out the relevant bits. Some of the info is way too technical to be practical. If I want to drive a car I do not necessarily need to know all the nitty gritty about engine technology.

> * What were your biggest misconceptions or
> stumbling blocks to getting up and running
> with R?

==> That R can't deal very well with large data, which is not entirely untrue. Also, I was learning another language (Python) and I didn't want R to interfere with that. Finally, in a working
 environment, it;s almost impossible to justify the time 'lost' learning a new language. Managers generally don't give a %$# about the beauty and robustness of a language. They just want to get the job done asap.

>
> * What documents helped you the most in this
> initial phase?
>
==> Many docs. CRAN documents (pdfs), other tutorials, Bob Muenchen's book. Many docs == many angles == a good way to learn things.

> I especially want to hear from people who are
> lazy and impatient.
>
==> Lazy? n/a. Impatient? Yup, guilty as charged.

> Feel free to write to me off-list.  Definitely
> write off-list if you are just confirming what
> has been said on-list.

Cheers!!

Albert-Jan



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--- On Thu, 2/25/10, Greg Snow <Greg.Snow@imail.org> wrote:

From: Greg Snow <Greg.Snow@imail.org>
Subject: Re: [R] two questions for R beginners
To: "Patrick Burns" <pburns@pburns.seanet.com>, "r-help@r-project.org" <r-help@r-project.org>
Date: Thursday, February 25, 2010, 9:42 PM

Patrick,

I would add one more question:

* where did you look for help expecting answers, but did not find them?

If you add hubris to laziness and impatience, you have Larry Wall's 3 virtues of a programmer.

To new users of R who may not understand why Patrick is asking:

Patrick Burns is the author of some great tutorials/references on S/R and is probably looking for questions to answer in
 his next contribution.

Lately there have been a large number of questions on some fairly basic issues (and some rather complex issues that people expected to be simple/basic).  My initial response (and probably others as well) to some of these requests was to quickly think that the answer is obvious and that the obvious place to look is ..., but then I realize that I am a high school dropout who has been using S/R for over 20 years, majored in statistics but reads Shakespeare for fun, and have been known to saw people in half for the entertainment of others; so I am probably not representative of most beginners.  Fortune(89) probably applies here.  If R beginners will share their frustrations, where they looked but did not find answers (and why they looked there), what would have helped them, etc.  Then we (well probably Patrick mostly) can do more to help the next set of beginners.

It does not matter how good our
 answers are if they answer the wrong questions or are in places that the questioner never sees them.

"The best way to spread information is to tell someone that it is a secret, the best way to keep it secret is to put it in a manual."

-- 
Gregory (Greg) L. Snow Ph.D.
Statistical Data Center
Intermountain Healthcare
greg.snow@imail.org
801.408.8111


> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces@r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces@r-
> project.org] On Behalf Of Patrick Burns
> Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 10:31 AM
> To: r-help@r-project.org
> Subject: [R] two questions for R beginners
>
 
> * What were your biggest misconceptions or
> stumbling blocks to getting up and running
> with R?
> 
> * What documents helped you the most in this
> initial phase?
> 
> I especially want to hear from people who are
> lazy and impatient.
> 
> Feel free to write to me off-list.  Definitely
> write off-list if you are just confirming what
> has been said on-list.
> 
> --
> Patrick Burns
> pburns@pburns.seanet.com
> http://www.burns-stat.com
> (home of 'The R Inferno' and 'A Guide for the Unwilling S User')
> 
> ______________________________________________
> 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.

______________________________________________
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.



      
	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

