[R] Time for a companion mailing list for R packages?

Tom Woolman twoo|m@n @end|ng |rom ont@rgettek@com
Thu Jan 13 18:30:34 CET 2022 

I concur on both of Eric's suggestions below. I love R but I couldn't 
imagine using it on a daily basis without "key" packages for various 
regression and classification modeling problems, etc.   Likewise on 
being able to embed images (within reason... maybe establish a max KB or 
MB file size for attachments).


Thanks,
Tom


On 2022-01-13 12:25, Eric Berger wrote:
> Re: constructive criticism to make this list more useful to more 
> people:
> 
> Suggestion 1: accommodate questions related to non-base-R packages
>                        This has been addressed by many already. The 
> current
> de facto situation is that such questions are asked and often answered.
> Perhaps the posting guide should be altered so that such questions fall
> within the guidelines.
> 
> Suggestion 2: expand beyond plain-text mode
>                         I assume there is a reason for this restriction 
> but
> it seems to create a lot of delay and often havoc. Also, many questions 
> on
> this list relate to graphics which is an important part of R (even base 
> R)
> and such questions may often be more easily communicated with images.
> 
> Eric
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 6:08 PM John Fox <jfox using mcmaster.ca> wrote:
> 
>> Dear Avi et al.,
>> 
>> Rather than proliferating R mailing lists, why not just allow 
>> questions
>> on non-standard packages on the r-help list?
>> 
>> (1) If people don't want to answer these questions, they don't have 
>> to.
>> 
>> (2) Users won't necessarily find the new email list and so may post to
>> r-help anyway, only to be told that they should have posted to another
>> list.
>> 
>> (3) Many of the questions currently posted to the list concern
>> non-standard packages and most of them are answered.
>> 
>> (4) If people prefer other sources of help (as listed on the R website
>> "getting help" page) then they are free to use them.
>> 
>> (5) As I read the posting guide, questions about non-standard packages
>> aren't actually disallowed; the posting guide suggests, however, that
>> the package maintainer be contacted first. But answers can be helpful 
>> to
>> other users, and so it may be preferable for at least some of these
>> questions to be asked on the list.
>> 
>> (6) Finally, the instruction concerning non-standard packages is 
>> buried
>> near the end of the posting guide, and users, especially new users, 
>> may
>> not understand what the term "standard packages" means even if they 
>> find
>> their way to the posting guide.
>> 
>> Best,
>>   John
>> 
>> --
>> John Fox, Professor Emeritus
>> McMaster University
>> Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
>> web: https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/jfox/
>> 
>> On 2022-01-12 10:27 p.m., Avi Gross via R-help wrote:
>> > Respectfully, this forum gets lots of questions that include non-base R
>> components and especially packages in the tidyverse. Like it or not, 
>> the
>> extended R language is far more useful and interesting for many people 
>> and
>> especially those who do not wish to constantly reinvent the wheel.
>> > And repeatedly, we get people reminding (and sometimes chiding) others
>> for daring to post questions or supply answers on what they see as a 
>> pure R
>> list. They have a point.
>> > Yes, there are other places (many not being mailing lists like this one)
>> where we can direct the questions but why can't there be an official
>> mailing list alongside this one specifically focused on helping or 
>> just
>> discussing R issues related partially to the use of packages. I don't 
>> mean
>> for people making a package to share, just users who may be searching 
>> for
>> an appropriate package or using a common package, especially the ones 
>> in
>> the tidyverse that are NOT GOING AWAY just because some purists ...
>> > I prefer a diverse set of ways to do things and base R is NOT enough for
>> me, nor frankly is R with all packages included as I find other 
>> languages
>> suit my needs at times for doing various things. If this group is for
>> purists, fine. Can we have another for the rest of us? Live and let 
>> live.
>> >
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan using gmail.com>
>> > To: Kai Yang <yangkai9999 using yahoo.com>; R-help Mailing List <
>> r-help using r-project.org>
>> > Sent: Wed, Jan 12, 2022 3:22 pm
>> > Subject: Re: [R] how to find the table in R studio
>> >
>> > On 12/01/2022 3:07 p.m., Kai Yang via R-help wrote:
>> >> Hi all,
>> >> I created a function in R. It will be generate a table "temp". I can
>> view it in R studio, but I cannot find it on the top right window in R
>> studio. Can someone tell me how to find it in there? Same thing for 
>> f_table.
>> >> Thank you,
>> >> Kai
>> >> library(tidyverse)
>> >>
>> >> f1 <- function(indata , subgrp1){
>> >>      subgrp1 <- enquo(subgrp1)
>> >>      indata0 <- indata
>> >>      temp    <- indata0 %>% select(!!subgrp1) %>% arrange(!!subgrp1) %>%
>> >>        group_by(!!subgrp1) %>%
>> >>        mutate(numbering =row_number(), max=max(numbering))
>> >>      view(temp)
>> >>      f_table <- table(temp$Species)
>> >>      view(f_table)
>> >> }
>> >>
>> >> f1(iris, Species)
>> >>
>> >
>> > Someone is sure to point out that this isn't an RStudio support list,
>> > but your issue is with R, not with RStudio.  You created the table in
>> > f1, but you never returned it.  The variable f_table is local to the
>> > function.  You'd need the following code to do what you want:
>> >
>> > f1 <- function(indata , subgrp1){
>> >    subgrp1 <- enquo(subgrp1)
>> >    indata0 <- indata
>> >    temp    <- indata0 %>% select(!!subgrp1) %>% arrange(!!subgrp1) %>%
>> >      group_by(!!subgrp1) %>%
>> >      mutate(numbering =row_number(), max=max(numbering))
>> >    view(temp)
>> >    f_table <- table(temp$Species)
>> >    view(f_table)
>> >    f_table
>> > }
>> >
>> > f_table <- f1(iris, Species)
>> >
>> > It's not so easy to also make temp available.  You can do it with
>> > assign(), but I think you'd be better off splitting f1 into two
>> > functions, one to create temp, and one to create f_table.
>> >
>> > Duncan Murdoch
>> >
>> > ______________________________________________
>> > R-help using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> > PLEASE do read the posting guide
>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>> >
>> >       [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>> >
>> > ______________________________________________
>> > R-help using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> > PLEASE do read the posting guide
>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>> 
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>> 
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide 
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

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