[R] R: Tools for thinking about data analysis and graphics

[Michael Friendly]

  I'm giving a talk about some aspects of language and conceptual tools 
for thinking about how
to solve problems in several programming languages for statistical 
computing and graphics. I'm particularly
interested in language features that relate to:

o expressive power: ease of translating what you want to do into the 
results you want
o elegance: how well does the code provide a simple human-readable 
description of what is done?
o extensibility: ease of generalizing a method to wider scope
o learnability: your learning curve (rate, asymptote)

For R, some things to cite are (a) data and function objects, (b) 
object-oriented methods (S3 & S4); (c) function mapping over data with 
*apply methods and plyr.

What other language features of R should be on this list?  I would 
welcome suggestions (and brief illustrative examples).

-Michael


-- 
Michael Friendly     Email: friendly AT yorku DOT ca
Professor, Psychology Dept.
York University      Voice: 416 736-5115 x66249 Fax: 416 736-5814
4700 Keele Street    Web:   http://www.datavis.ca
Toronto, ONT  M3J 1P3 CANADA