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

Eric Berger er|cjberger @end|ng |rom gm@||@com
Thu Jan 13 18:25:00 CET 2022 

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.
>

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