I can answer one of your questions, Bob. R does *not* get entangled with Windows. I've run it from the same flash drive on a Windows, a MacOS and a Linux-based machine. PGY --- Dr. Paula Grafton Young Associate Professor of Mathematics Chair, Curriculum Committee, 2011 - 2013 Chair, Strategic Planning Steering Committee, 2012 - 2013 paula.young@salem.edu 336.721.2747 (O) 336.721.2653 (F) On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 1:17 PM, Bob wrote: > > Almost all the R documentation seems to me to be written for > statistician/programmers and is way over the heads of most students. > For that reason I made my own materials for my online classes and they > are at > > http://statland.org/Software_Help/R/Rhome.htm > > For the teacher, the book by John Verzani gives detailed coverage > relevant to the topics in a first course. There is a free, older and > shorter version at CRAN last I knew which might be a useful reference > for students. I have found these the most readable for beginners > though they tend to tell you every possible thing you can do and every > way you can do it which can be overwhelming. > > You might also look at some of the alternative interfaces to R. R > Commander is a GUI interface that might make life easier, but last > time I tried it the installation was a nightmare taking hours as > dependencies of dependencies of dependencies downlaoded. I made (but > did not get to test before I retired) a bootable Linux distribution > with R and all the depnedencies I wanted preinstalled. I don't know > if it is possible to copy an entire Windows R installation to a CD and > hand out copies. Does R get entangled with the Windows registry or > put files in the Windows directory? It's not that the install is all > that bad but I find it way too bad to be a student's first experience > with R. It may end with R having 2.99999 strikes against it;-( It's > a far cry from most Windows installs. > > Forwarded message: > > From r-sig-teaching-bounces@r-project.org Sun Nov 18 21:10:26 2012 > > From: Nguyen Chanh Tu > > > > Dear all, > > I am going to teach Probability and Statistics for engineering students. > I > > probably use the book "Probability and Statistics for engineeriing and > the > > sciences" by J. L. Devore. And I am going to use R for the course. > > This is the first time for me to try to use R. (Before I just use Excel). > > Could you please be so kind to help me for anything concerning to a > > beginner, especially: > > 1) Which packages should I install with the standard R? > > 2) Can I find some where demo files of teaching or script files > concerning > > to the course. > > 3) If there is any help already had in the forum about these starting > > steps, please point out to me such that I can read more. > > 4) Is there anyone using the same textbook or similar one of mine such > that > > we can exchange teaching experients on the course. > > > > Thank you very much in advances. Looking forward to hearing from you. > > Sincerely, > > Nguyen > > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > > > _______________________________________________ > > R-sig-teaching@r-project.org mailing list > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-teaching > > > > > > Sent from my nine-year-old Dell GX-260 running Mepis Linux 8.0 > -------> First-time AP Stats. teacher? Help is on the way! See > http://courses.ncssm.edu/math/Stat_Inst/Stats2007/Bob%20Hayden/Relief.html > _ > | | Robert W. Hayden > | | 142 Main Street > / | Apartment 104 > | | Jaffrey, New Hampshire 03452 USA > | | email: bob@ the site below > / | website: http://statland.org > | x / phone: (603) 532-7224 (home) > '''''' > > _______________________________________________ > R-sig-teaching@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-teaching > [[alternative HTML version deleted]]