[R] what is R best for; what should one learn in addition to R

[Greg Snow]

What things you should learn in addition to R depends on what types of things you want to do.  But here are some of the programs that I recommend people take a look at:

gnuplot
ggobi
Imagemagick
LaTeX
xfig
Make
Emacs (or other programming editor)
SQL
Perl (or other scripting language)
Tk (actually more an extension than a language/package)

I also recommend that people doing statistics know at least the basics of 3 different stats packages (S-Plus and R don't count as 2 separate packages)

Depending on your situation, some of the above may be useful, others may not.  And things can change, I find myself using Perl much less than I used to (but am still glad to have it as one of my tools).

-- 
Gregory (Greg) L. Snow Ph.D.
Statistical Data Center
Intermountain Healthcare
greg.snow at imail.org
801.408.8111


> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-
> project.org] On Behalf Of Juliet Hannah
> Sent: Monday, April 20, 2009 9:49 AM
> To: r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: [R] what is R best for; what should one learn in addition to R
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I've been working with R for a couple of years, and I've
> been able to get most of the things done that I needed (sometimes in
> a roundabout way). A few experienced statisticians told me that
> R is best for interactive data analysis, but for large-scale
> computations, one needs something else.
> 
> I understand that this all depends on what you are trying to
> accomplish, and R offers many ways to make large-scale
> computing possible.
> 
> I am seeking advice from those of you who do statistical
> programming outside of R. What do you use, and what kinds
> of applications require you to use something other than R?
> 
> I have some experience with Java, C++, and Perl. Where would you
> suggest that I concentrate my efforts so that if R does not handle
> what I need well, I will be equipped to handle it.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Juliet
> 
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