[R] Reasons to Use R

[Taylor, Z Todd]

On Monday, April 09, 2007 3:23 PM, someone named Wilfred wrote:

> So what's the big deal about S using files instead of memory
> like R. I don't get the point. Isn't there enough swap space
> for S? (Who cares anyway: it works, isn't it?) Or are there
> any problems with S and large datasets? I don't get it. You
> use them, Greg. So you might discuss that issue.

S's one-to-one correspondence between S objects and filesystem
objects is the single remaining reason I haven't completely
converted over to R.  With S I can manage my objects via
makefiles.  Corrections to raw data or changes to analysis
scripts get applied to all objects in the project (and there
are often thousands of them) by simply typing 'make'.  That
includes everything right down to the graphics that will go
in the report.

How do people live without that?

--Todd
-- 
Why is 'abbreviation' such a long word?