[R-pkg-devel] UseR! Session: Making R easier to use (was: Navigating the jungle of R packages)

Mark van der Loo mark.vanderloo at gmail.com
Sun Feb 12 23:37:31 CET 2017 

Fwiw, there's also something called the awesome lists (
https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome, and see the R list here:
https://github.com/qinwf/awesome-R), which is basically a kind of task
views for any language, and controlled via git pull requests.

Not sure if this would be a good alternative, but judging by the nr of gh
stars the awesome lists seem pretty popular.

Personally, I almost always use Google/Google scholar when I need
something. I use task views/awesome lists mainly when I get interested in
some field and want to have a quick browse to see what's there. Once in a
while I also need duckduckgo to escape the bubble.

-M

On Sun, Feb 12, 2017, 23:17 Spencer Graves <
spencer.graves at effectivedefense.org> wrote:

>
> On 2017-02-11 7:39 AM, J C Nash wrote:
> > Certainly Google can be useful, but it can also be infuriatingly
> > time-wasting when one needs to sort out related tools that do slightly
> > different things. Then good, up-to-date task views are important, and
> > wrappers such as I and some others are trying to develop can be a way
> > to ease the chore of applying the tools or changing between related
> > ones where there isn't enough information on which is best.
> >
> > Perhaps Jim, Spencer, and I (others welcome!) can come up with some
> > small examples to show where Google / sos / other search tools and the
> > task views (Julia?) can be illustrated to provide guidance. After all,
> > the purpose of the UseR! session is to try to develop improved ways to
> > access R's packages.
>
>
>        The sos vignette discusses searching for "Petal.Length" and
> "spline", combining different searches, and writing the result to an
> Excel workbook with sheets for a package summary, the individual help
> pages found, and documentation of the actual search.
>
>
>        With luck, this session may catalyze the formation of a committee
> with a vision for how to improve what we have and the commitment to do it.
>
>
>        Spencer
>
>
> p.s.  Someone complained that R was not a jungle.  I'm therefore
> proposing we consider changing the name of the session to something like
> "Making R easier to use".  John Nash thought the jungle analogy was
> good, because CRAN and a jungle are both resource rich but navigation poor.
>
> >
> > Cheers, John Nash
> >
> > On 2017-02-10 05:26 PM, Jim Lemon wrote:
> >> This discussion started me thinking about searching for a function or
> >> package, as many questions on the R help list indicate the that poster
> >> couldn't find (or hasn't searched for) what they want. I don't think I
> >> have ever used task views. If I haven't got a clue where to look for
> >> something, I use Google. I can't recall an occasion when I didn't get
> >> an answer, even if it was that what I wanted didn't exist. Perhaps we
> >> should ask why Google is so good at answering uninformed questions, in
> >> particular about R. I'm not the only person on the help list who
> >> advises the clueless to try Google.
> >>
> >> Jim
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sat, Feb 11, 2017 at 3:51 AM, Ben Bolker <bbolker at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>   I definitely read the task views and advise others to do so.  I
> >>> don't know how representative my little corner of the world is,
> >>> though.
> >>>
> >>>   I have an embryonic task view on mixed models at
> >>>
> https://github.com/bbolker/mixedmodels-misc/blob/master/MixedModels.ctv
> >>> but the perfect is the enemy of the good ...
>
>
>        What do you think about converting the Task Views into a wiki?
>
>
>        The Wikimedia rules do pretty well in inviting anyone to
> contribute material, quickly and easily deleting obvious vandalism,
> managing conflicts, and ensuring that the resulting articles are
> noteworthy and high quality -- and no one person has to be responsible
> for any specific thing.
>
>
>        Spencer Graves
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Fri, Feb 10, 2017 at 9:56 AM, J C Nash <profjcnash at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>> We'd be more than happy to have you contribute directly. The goal
> >>>> is not
> >>>> just an
> >>>> information session, but to get some movement to ways to make the
> >>>> package
> >>>> collection(s)
> >>>> easier to use effectively. Note to selves: "effectively" is
> >>>> important -- we
> >>>> could make
> >>>> things easy by only recommending a few packages.
> >>>>
> >>>> Best, JN
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On 2017-02-10 09:29 AM, Michael Dewey wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Dear all
> >>>>>
> >>>>> That seems an interesting session. I am the maintainer of one of
> >>>>> the CRAN
> >>>>> Task Views (MetaAnalysis) and will attend
> >>>>> unless I am successful in the draw for Wimbledon tickets.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Just in case I strike lucky one question I would have raised from the
> >>>>> floor if I were there would have been "Does anyone
> >>>>> read the Task Views?". Since I started mine I have received only a
> >>>>> couple
> >>>>> of suggestions for additions including a very
> >>>>> abrupt one about a package which had been included for months but
> >>>>> whose
> >>>>> author clearly did not read before writing. So I
> >>>>> would ask whether we need to focus much energy on the Task Views.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> So, maybe see you there, maybe not.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On 16/01/2017 14:57, ProfJCNash wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Navigating the Jungle of R Packages
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> The R ecosystem has many packages in various collections,
> >>>>>> especially CRAN, Bioconductor, and GitHub. While this
> >>>>>> richness of choice speaks to the popularity and
> >>>>>> importance of R, the large number of contributed packages
> >>>>>> makes it difficult for users to find appropriate tools for
> >>>>>> their work.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> A session on this subject has been approved for UseR! in
> >>>>>> Brussels. The tentative structure is three short
> >>>>>> introductory presentations, followed by discussion or
> >>>>>> planning work to improve the tools available to help
> >>>>>> users find the best R package and function for their needs.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> The currently proposed topics are
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> - wrapper packages that allow diverse tools that perform
> >>>>>>   similar functions to be accessed by unified calls
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> - collaborative mechanisms to create and update Task Views
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> - search and sort tools to find packages.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> At the time of writing we have tentative presenters for
> >>>>>> the topics, but welcome others. We hope these presentations
> >>>>>> at useR! 2017 will be part of a larger discussion that will
> >>>>>> contribute to an increased team effort after the conference
> >>>>>> to improve the the support for R users in these areas.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> John Nash, Julia Silge, Spencer Graves
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> ______________________________________________
> >>>>>> R-package-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> >>>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> ______________________________________________
> >>>> R-package-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> >>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
> >>>
> >>> ______________________________________________
> >>> R-package-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> >>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
> >>
> >> ______________________________________________
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> >>
> >
>
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