[R-gui] and Re: [R] The hidden costs of GPL software

[José Cláudio Faria]

Hi All,

This has been an very interesting discussion!

Advise:  excuse me, my English is not very good, but I woul like to participate
               with same considerations.

1: Tim said:
> I don't think a fancy GUI is necessary... I get the impression that the
> real power of R is the fact that really it's a programming language,
> and should probably be treated and learned as such.

I would like to agree with Tim and I think the user
(novice or experienced) needs basically the resources of three
or four basic R GUI projects:

a) A good and simple, in principle, GUI (like SciViews and JGR)
b) A good and simple, in principle, and basic tool to learn easily to write
   S&R scripts (like Rcmdr), now intergrated with SciViews.
c) A good and simple, in principle, scripts editor (like WinEdit and Tinn-R).
   Tinn-R is now integrate with SciViews.

PS: I don't work with Emacs + ESS and I think isn't adequate for the novice,
    definitively, not.
   
So, SciViews is a good, in principle, GUI for R. The major problem, is to make
it available in all plataforms suported for the R.

I think that the R user, necessarily, must have disposition to learn
S and R languages: The power and flexibility is there!!!

The GUI will help the user in this intention. 

2: Ted said:
> One genuine benefit that the GUI offers, especially to
> beginners with a particular software package, is that the
> resources of the software can perhaps more easily and rapidly
> be explored through the GUI, rather than searching laboriously
> through the documentation of functions, extra packages, and
> so on. This means that they more readily come to perceive
> what is available though of course this is limited to what
> the GUI will show them. But a good "Help" window can break
> that barrier.

Very good!

> This, though, still fails for information in packages which
> you have not installed.

Idem!

3: Jonathan Baron said:
> This is one of the purpose of my R search page.  I have all
> packages installed.  You can also search the help list, etc., in
> the same search.  Some people have bookmarks for it.  Of course
> you need to be connected to the internet.

Thanks for your page Jon: very useful!

4: Philippe said:
> May be, I am just a "DREAMER", but all I read in this discussion reinforce my
> conviction that an **innovative** GUI would be a good addition to R...
> For sure, the alternate GUI will only support you in writing R code, and
> will deliver plenty of help to achieve this goal.

I Think that Philippe is correct.

Perhaps Free Pascal and Lazarus (IDE for the Free Pascal) can be considered as
an alternative to make an OS independent R GUI.

Lazarus (http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/) is the class libraries for
Free Pascal that emulate Delphi.

Free Pascal is a GPL'ed compiler that runs on Linux, Win32, OS/2, 68K and more.
Free Pascal is designed to be able to understand and compile Delphi syntax.

Best regards,

José Cláudio Faria - Prof. Adjunto/Estatística 
UESC/DCET
Brasil
73-634.2779
joseclaudio.faria at terra.com.br
jc_faria at uesc.br
jc_faria at uol.com.br