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)

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On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 1:17 PM, Bob <bob@statland.org> 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 <nctu2006@gmail.com>
> >
> > 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
>       _
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