[R] Re: Thanks Frank, setting graph parameters, and why social scientists don't use R

[John]

On Tuesday 17 August 2004 09:20, Berton Gunter wrote:
> A few comments:

It has been decades since I used SPSS.  At that time, to really work with it 
you edited a text file program that identified the data file and variable 
columns you wanted to work with.  You assembled the flow of work commands 
after carefully going through the SPSS documentation.  After you were ready, 
you ran the program and crossed your fingers.  R IS complex, enough so that 
the useability at a basic level is readily achievable.  What it lacks is 
simply the Stat 1 and Stat 101 packages that lead users from the very basics 
covered in introductory statistics texts into more profound analyses that 
some many R users are interested in.  There are some texts, such as Peter 
Daalgard's Introductory Statistics with R, which is a very useful book.  
However, from a student's view point Chapter 1 focuses on R, everything from 
the R Language to R programming.  The statistics chapters that follow almost 
seem to be used as an adjunct to teaching R rather than vice versa.  For some 
social science students, a package that leads more gradually into R would 
probably be a big help learning learning the language while getting their 
feet wet in statistics.

John