[R] GUI's for teaching

Marc Feldesman feldesmanm at pdx.edu
Wed Jun 26 23:47:30 CEST 2002


Beginners I've taught seem to have more difficulty figuring out which 
function(s) to use to accomplish a particular task than actually figuring 
out how to use R (or S-Plus) from the command line.  They also have 
difficulty remembering the arguments to specific functions once they figure 
out which ones to use.  The first problem might be resolved by a more fully 
cross-referenced help system (the help system is great for experienced 
users, but hard if you don't actually know the name of the function you're 
looking for).  The second problem might be aided by adding code-completion 
to the UI - something ESS already does for many packages and libraries.

I think if these two areas could be addressed, beginners might be less 
daunted by R/S learning curve.

My $0.01 (US).



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