At 20:12 08/01/06, Jack Tanner wrote: >Philippe's idea to start a wiki that grows out of the content on >http://zoonek2.free.fr/UNIX/48_R/all.html is really great. Here's why. > >My hypothesis is that the basic reason that people ask questions on R-help >rather than first looking elsewhere is that looking elsewhere doesn't get >them the info they need. > >People think in terms of the tasks they have to do. The documentation for >R, which can be very good, is organized in terms of the structure of R, >its functions. This mismatch -- people think of tasks, the documentation >"thinks in" functions -- causes people to turn to the mailing list.
Further to that I feel that (perhaps because they do not like to blow their own trumpet too much) the authors of books on R do not stress how much most questioners could gain by buying and reading at least one of the many books on R. When I started I found the free documents useful but I made most progress when I bought MASS. I do realise that liking books is a bit last millennium. Michael Dewey http://www.aghmed.fsnet.co.uk ______________________________________________ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html