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

[John Fox]

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
> 
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> ______________________________________________
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