[i sent this message earlier but apparently should have sent it plain text, as follows..]
Hi there, I would like some advice, not so much about how to use R, but about software that I need to complement R. I've rooted around in the FAQ's and done a few searches on this mailing list but haven't quite found the perspective I need. I am an experienced data analyst in my field (forest ecology and ecological monitoring) but new to R. I am a long time user of SPSS and have gotten pretty handy with it. However, I am frustrated with SPSS for several reasons: There's the cost (I'm a freelancer; I pay for my software myself); the Windows dependence (I use Kubuntu as my usual OS now, and switching back and forth is a pain); the horrible inefficiency when I do certain types of file manipulations; and the inability to do the kind of publication-quality graphs I want... I've usually ended up using a commercial graphing program (another source of expense and limitation). I'd like to switch to using R on Kubuntu, for all those reasons. In addition I think the mathematical formality that R encourages might be good for me. However, reviewing the FAQ's on the R project web site makes me realize that I've been using SPSS as three kinds of software really: a DBMS; a statistical analysis package; and a graphing package. It looks like moving to R might involve learning three kinds of software, not just one. I wonder: 1) What open-source DBMS works most seamlessly with R? I have seen MySQL recommended but wonder if there are alternatives. I sometimes need to handle big data files. In fact a lot of my work involves exploratory and descriptive analyses of rather large and messy databases from ecological monitoring, rather than statistical tests per se. In SPSS the data files I have been generating have dozens of columns and thousands of rows, often with value and variable labels helpful for documenting my work. 2) For the purpose of creating publication-quality graphs, do R users typically need to go outside of the R system? If so, what open-source programs would you all recommend? 3) Any other software I need to learn that would make my work in R more productive? (for example, a code editor). Thank you for your time, Martin J. Brown Portland, Oregon ______________________________________________ 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 and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
