[R] FastICA

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Tue, 12 Aug 2008, someone with no credentials wrote:

> I may not have been as wrong as Prof. Ripley suggested when I wrote "The
> fastICA packages for Matlab and R (...) have a common origin at the Helsinki
> University of Technology."
>
> Please consider the following lines from the 'fastICA' help page (?fastICA):
>
>   FastICA algorithm
>
>   Description:
>
>        This is an R and C code implementation of the FastICA algorithm
>        of Aapo Hyvarinen et al. (<URL: http://www.cis.hut.fi/aapo/>)
>        to perform Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and Projection
>        Pursuit.
>
> So the C code base is not the same, I guess, but "The code has no connection
> with Helsinki University of Technology" does not seem to be totally correct.

It was 'totally correct'.  Obviously fast ICA (the algorithm description) 
originated with someone at the Helsinki University of Technology, but the 
fastICA package for R has no other connection.

This was like crediting R's and SAS's code for ANOVA to Rothamsted 
Research Station just because R. A. Fisher used to work there, and 
equally unhelpful.

> //  Hans Werner Borchers
>
>
>
> Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, 12 Aug 2008, someone with no signature wrote:
>>
>>> Maura E Monville <maura.monville <at> gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Is the FastICA R implementation as good as the MatLab Implementation ?
>>>> I would appreciate talking to someone who has used FastICA for R.
>>>
>>> The fastICA packages for Matlab and R (and there is even a version for
>>> Python)
>>> have a common origin at the Helsinki University of Technology. I
>>> regularly use
>>
>> Have you actually looked at the R one?  The code has no connection with
>> Helsinki University of Technology.  'Credit where credit is due' and all
>> that.
>>
>>> Matlab and R, not seeing much of a difference in packages like these.
>>>
>>> //  Hans Werner Borchers
>>
>> Or quite possibly someone else using Mr Borchers name.
>>
>> --
>> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
>> Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
>> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
>> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
>> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
>>
>>
>
> -- 
> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/FastICA-tp18928778p18940982.html
> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
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-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595