On 30/03/2010, at 10:04 PM, Barry Rowlingson wrote: > On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 2:42 AM, Rolf Turner <r.tur...@auckland.ac.nz> wrote: > >> Well then, why don't you go away and design and build your own statistics and >> data analysis language/package to replace R? You can then make whatever >> design decisions you like, and you won't have to live with the design >> decisions >> made by such silly and inept people as John Chambers and Rick Becker and >> their ilk. > > Aah, argument by (ironic) reference to learned authority!
Not at all. I was not arguing about the correctness of the design, decisions. I was objecting to the churlish tone and the fatuousness of the complaint. The design decisions, right or wrong, were taken a long time ago, and are impossible to change now. So if you don't like 'em, there's now't to be done but go build your own package. That being said, learned authority is not always correct but has a strong tendency to be so. Decisions made by learned authority may be disputed but one should be very sure that one knows what the whuck (Maori spelling :-) ) one is talking about before disputing. Cf. fortune("matter of opinion"). As regards features of R flustering comp-sci people: So many dysfunctional pieces of software are designed by arrogant computer scientists who do not actually *use* that software, do not know the background of the area of application, and do not understand the area of application. I'll go with stats software designed by statisticians rather than computer scientists any day. Who designed Excel? cheers, Rolf ###################################################################### Attention: This e-mail message is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author. This e-mail has been scanned and cleared by MailMarshal www.marshalsoftware.com ###################################################################### ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list 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.