Dear Phillippe,
Very interesting. The URL of the article is http://www.scientific-computing.com/scwsepoct04free_statistics.html.
Best regards,
Jan Smit
Philippe Grosjean wrote:
Hello,
In the latest 'Scientific Computing World' magazine (issue 78, p. 22), there is a review on free statistical software by Felix Grant ("doesn't have to pay good money to obtain good statistics software"). As far as I know, this is the first time that R is even mentioned in this magazine, given that it usually discuss commercial products.
In this article, the analysis of R is interesting. It is admitted that R is a great software with lots of potentials, but: "All in all, R was a good lesson in the price that may have to be paid for free software: I spent many hours relearning some quite basic things taken for granted in the commercial package." Those basic things are releated with data import, obtention of basic plots, etc... with a claim for a missing more intuitive GUI in order to smooth a little bit the learning curve.
There are several R GUI projects ongoing, but these are progressing very slowly. The main reason is, I believe, that a relatively low number of programmers working on R are interested by this field. Most people wanting such a GUI are basic user that do not (cannot) contribute... And if they eventually become more knowledgeable, they tend to have other interests.
So, is this analysis correct: are there hidden costs for free software like R in the time required to learn it? At least currently, for the people I know (biologists, ecologists, oceanographers, ...), this is perfectly true. This is even an insurmountable barrier for many of them I know, and they have given up (they come back to Statistica, Systat, or S-PLUS using exclusively functions they can reach through menus/dialog boxes).
Of course, the solution is to have a decent GUI for R, but this is a lot of work, and I wonder if the intrinsic mechanism of GPL is not working against such a development (leading to a very low pool of programmers actively involved in the elaboration of such a GUI, in comparison to the very large pool of competent developers working on R itself).
Do not misunderstand me: I don't give up with my GUI project, I am just wondering if there is a general, ineluctable mechanism that leads to the current R / R GUI situation as it stands,... and consequently to a "general rule" that there are indeed most of the time "hidden costs" in free software, due to the larger time required to learn it. I am sure there are counter-examples, however, my feeling is that, for Linux, Apache, etc... the GUI (if there is one) is often a way back in comparison to the potentials in the software, leading to a steep learning curve in order to use all these features.
I would be interested by your impressions and ideas on this topic.
Best regards,
Philippe Grosjean
..............................................<°}))><........
) ) ) ) )
( ( ( ( ( Prof. Philippe Grosjean
) ) ) ) )
( ( ( ( ( Numerical Ecology of Aquatic Systems
) ) ) ) ) Mons-Hainaut University, Pentagone
( ( ( ( ( Academie Universitaire Wallonie-Bruxelles
) ) ) ) ) 6, av du Champ de Mars, 7000 Mons, Belgium ( ( ( ( ( ) ) ) ) ) phone: + 32.65.37.34.97, fax: + 32.65.37.33.12
( ( ( ( ( email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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