[R-gui] Re: [R] Feedback about SciViews?

[Duncan Murdoch]

On Tue, 29 Apr 2003 07:55:40 -0400, you wrote:

>I think that platform independence is extremely important.  You did not say otherwise, but I was hoping you would stress that point.  -Frank Harrell

I don't know if I agree with you or not.  I think it's extremely
important at the level of computations that don't involve the user
interface.  If you're doing a statistical computation, your functions
and scripts and packages should work on every platform.

However, I think it's a hindrance to progress if platform independence
is enforced in the user interface.  

Different platforms support different user interface elements.  If we
aim for platform independence in the user interface, then we will
necessarily be limited in what can be done there.  For a simple
example, the use of the mouse for copying and pasting varies from
system to system.  I think it's obvious that we should not impose
common rules on the use of the mouse (how do you copy, paste, etc.)  

There needs to be a level of abstraction (e.g. all platforms should
support copy & paste, but in their native way), but there also needs
to be the possibility of using features that are available on one
platform that aren't on others.  If they turn out to be good, then
someone will write them for the other platform.  If they turn out to
be bad, then we'll find that out without wasting all the time of
writing them portably.

For example, right now ESS does things that aren't available to people
not using Emacs, e.g. Rgui users.  This is good:  it encourages people
to find ways to do those things, either by adopting Emacs, or by
putting them into Rgui, or by writing a new front end like Philippe is
doing.  If Philippe invents something that looks useful (and from his
presentation in Vienna, I think he is doing that), then a similar
propagation will happen.

Duncan Murdoch