[R-wiki] R jargon

[Frank Harrell]

You make good points Philippe.  I stand my my original opinion that 
as long as everyone continues to answer posts to r-help it will 
remain a never-ending unorganized string of largely redundant 
information.  It is rare for people seeking information to search the 
r-help archive, and the archive is unnecessarily large.

Frank

Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chairman        School of Medicine
                      Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University

On Mon, 16 Aug 2010, Philippe Grosjean wrote:

> One thing that can be done is to update the list of abbreviations to
> include R specific terms. The Wiki adds automatically a little tooltip
> text with the definition that is activated each time the user moves the
> mouse cursor on top of the word.
>
> A page with the definitions would be worth too.
>
> Regarding the mitigate success of the Wiki, that contrasts with other
> languages where the wiki is really the primary source of information (I
> think at Tcl/Tk, for instance). I think the reason is the other
> "channels" of information are pre-existing the R wiki, and people are
> used to them. Regarding R blogs, the reason is different: it looks more
> technically up-to-date to have and use a blog than a wiki... although I
> think the wiki is better for collaborative writing of documentation in a
> centralized place.
>
> The "wikified" version of help pages with a discussion section was, I
> think, a good idea but I never got the time to finalize the plugin and
> to install a system that automatically synch wiki versions of help pages
> with latest version, ... as intended.
>
> Now, the new HTTP help server introduced in R 2.10 opens new
> perspectives. If someone is connected to the Internet, it should be
> possible to add the discussion section of the corresponding wiki page at
> the bottom of the regular help page. Hence, every user that would add
> this feature (by means of a rwiki package that is still to be written)
> would get a very easy and convenient access to related wiki pages. Then,
> of course, people would have to populate the discussion sections with
> short tips, comments, or links to other related wiki pages, ... but the
> key feature here would be to bring the R wiki right inside (at the
> bottom of) the regular help pages.
>
> That's what I think would be most helpful to leverage the R wiki that
> has a lot a nice stuff now (but also other pages of mixed, or even, low
> quality, that would require post-processing by R experts... but that's
> another problem)!
>
> Best,
>
> Philippe
>
> ..............................................<°}))><........
>  ) ) ) ) )
> ( ( ( ( (    Prof. Philippe Grosjean
>  ) ) ) ) )
> ( ( ( ( (    Numerical Ecology of Aquatic Systems
>  ) ) ) ) )   Mons University, Belgium
> ( ( ( ( (
> ..............................................................
>
> On 09/08/10 10:27, Patrick Burns wrote:
>> Thanks for the good question, Ben.
>>
>> I'm looking for volunteers. I'm
>> definitely not going to have time to
>> learn enough wiki stuff to put the
>> structure in place.
>>
>> Once the structure is there, I would
>> put definitions in. But I'd prefer
>> for someone to volunteer to do that
>> as well -- I have one or two other
>> things in mind to do.
>>
>> Pat
>>
>>
>> On 08/08/2010 21:27, Ben Bolker wrote:
>>> So ... are you asking requesting commentary on whether this is a
>>> good idea or not? (Seems so to me.) Asking for for help in porting
>>> this/volunteers to port it? (I might help, but I also might not find
>>> time. I would be happy if someone else volunteered ...)
>>>
>>> I guess I'm as frustrated as (perhaps) all of the other wiki contributors
>>> that it hasn't taken off, and that the primary source of information
>>> as well
>>> as the primary sink of energy for answering questions remains the mailing
>>> list. (Now Stackoverflow, Stackexchange, and various R blogs are also
>>> competing for this energy ...)
>>> I intended to make contributions to the wiki be a class activity, but I
>>> never really got around to it. I still think that's a good idea.
>>>
>>> Ben Bolker
>>>
>>> On Sat, Aug 7, 2010 at 6:29 AM, Patrick Burns<patrick at burns-stat.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>> The document 'Some hints for the R beginner'
>>>> is gradually becoming more complete and gradually
>>>> gaining momentum in terms of hits.
>>>>
>>>> One of the more popular sub-pages is the jaRgon
>>>> page even though there is hardly anything on it.
>>>>
>>>> I think the R-wiki is the place that such a list
>>>> should live. My vision is that for each word
>>>> there be a brief definition and then a link to a
>>>> wiki page for the word. A number of definitions
>>>> would be on the same page.
>>>>
>>>> I think this could be the application that finally
>>>> gives the R-wiki the boost that it needs to fulfill
>>>> its promise. The people learning R from the 'hints'
>>>> document would come to think of the R-wiki as a
>>>> natural place to look for information.
>>>>
>>>> The steps to do this are to create the structure
>>>> within the wiki for it, and then to populate the
>>>> definitions. The glossary from S Poetry should be
>>>> a good starting point. I'm also happy to donate
>>>> the jaRgon pun.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Patrick Burns
>>>> patrick at burns-stat.com
>>>> http://www.burns-stat.com
>>>>
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>>>> R-sig-wiki at r-project.org
>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-wiki
>>>>
>>>
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>>
>
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