[R] A long digression on packages

[Sander Oom]

Oooops, already missed one:

5. search of the R mailing lists: http://maths.newcastle.edu.au/~rking/R/

ad5. never used this before. Think Google also does an excellent job 
finding these if you start search with "R".

Sander.



Sander Oom wrote:
> Maybe some of this confusion about search opportunities and pros/cons 
> could be avoided if the search page on CRAN 
> (http://cran.r-project.org/search.html) would be extended to cover all 
> main search tools!
> 
> Quickly scanning the discussion, I found these:
> 1- simply Google: some tips and tricks have been mentioned and would be 
> usefully for most users;
> 2- R site search (external to CRAN) 
> http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/search.html;
> 3- from R prompt: help.search();
> 4- browser supported search through local help files: 
> R/doc/html/search/SearchEngine.html.
> 
> ad1. Google is normally my first source using broad keywords for a 
> method or problem.
> ad2. just discovered this today!
> ad3. help.search() provides a simple overview, printing the command with 
> the providing package:
>  > help.search("rose")
> Help files with alias or concept or title matching ‘rose’ using
> regular expression matching:
> hirose(boot)            Failure Time of PET Film
> rose.diag(CircStats)    Rose Diagram
> rose.diag(circular)     Rose Diagram
> windrose(circular)      Windrose Generator
> rosavent(climatol)      Wind-rose plot
> Kinship82(clue)         Rosenberg-Kim Kinship Terms Partition Data
> HolidayDatabase(fCalendar)
>                         Holiday Calendars and Utilities
> conc(ineq)              Concentration Measures
> Type 'help(FOO, package = PKG)' to inspect entry 'FOO(PKG) TITLE'.
> 
> ad4. when installing all package locally, the results produced by the 
> browser supported search can be overwhelming. Even searching within the 
> results often does not help. If commands were printed along with the 
> providing package would be a good improvement. Then the apparent random 
> order of commands listed might also reveal some order.
> 
> Hope this is a useful addition to the debate,
> 
> Sander.
> 
> Chris Evans wrote:
>> On 5 Jun 2005 at 18:44, Jari Oksanen wrote:
>>
>>> There are diverse opinions about netiquette. One of the most basic, in
>>> my opinion, is this: if someone posts starts a discussion in a certain
>>> forum, you shall not divert it to another forum where it may be hidden
>>> by most readers, perhaps even by the originator of the thread.
>>
>> With the greatest of respect for Duncan and the R-devel list, I think 
>> Jari has a point here.  This is one of the most important issues I've 
>> seen raised on this list (R-help) in recent months and I think it may 
>> be a structural problem for the development of R, in common with that 
>> of much FLOSS s'ware, that there's a separation of users and authors 
>> that needs thought.  There are no perfect answers but too big a 
>> separation and projects go "techno" and it's hard for those of us who 
>> can't code C and who are mere "users" to help those outstanding people 
>> on whom we depend hear what we need: sometimes they are so clever, so 
>> specialised in their knowledge, or simply in the realm of genius not 
>> the ordinary, that they can't see our problem.  I have slowly come to 
>> respect that a pretty brusque style from our authorities is the only 
>> way to prevent this list being a madhouse but I think that Jim's point 
>> may fall into that class that is worth some duplicate bandwidth here.
>>
>> I know I've found the problem Jim highlights very confusing and 
>> unhelpful at times.  Views, which I didn't know, seem helpful but not 
>> a real solution to the key problem: they may tangentially help by 
>> ensuring that if your needs fit into a view, it becomes more likely 
>> that you'll install the packages you need and a local search may tell 
>> you what you need.  I've taken the inefficient route which suits me of 
>> installing just about every package to make it less likely I'll miss 
>> something of use to me. That means my search for "kappa" and "Cohen" 
>> (with ignore.case=FALSE) turns up at least three implementations of 
>> aspects of Cohen's kappa.
>>
>> It may already exist, but a web interface that did a help.search over 
>> all the packages in the current release version would be great.  (If 
>> it does exist, sorry, but I'm no dunce and use R nearly every day and 
>> try to read much of r-help every day and don't know it, which may say 
>> something!)
>>
>> I think there may be a need for some R improvement and automated 
>> updating of what I think is Frank Harrell's function finder:
>>     http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/s/finder/finder.html
>> Though I'm not absolutely sure how fitting your works into something 
>> like that could be imposed on developers!
>>
>> Another thing that might help would be for a system by which ordinary 
>> users would volunteer to pair up with developers for packages and try 
>> to suggest adaptations of the help and such like that might make the 
>> packages more user friendly.  I wouldn't want to do that for the whole 
>> of a huge and vital package like MASS or Hmisc (or base or stats!) but 
>> I'm up for pairing with a developer on a smaller package if anyone 
>> thinks that would be helpful.
>>
>> Thoughts for what they're worth.  Thanks a million to all developers 
>> ... asbestos suit on!
>>
>> Chris
> 
> 


-- 
--------------------------------------------
Dr Sander P. Oom
Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences,
University of the Witwatersrand
Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa
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