Hi Will,

Great to see some action happening on this list.
Personally, I don't think that providing a menu-driven interface is
of any help. We discussed it a while ago when you came down to
Dunedin. I really am convinced that tables and mice don't do the
trick. Also, I'm 100% percent sure that an undergrad not being
polluted by Excel, SPSS or the like (try SPSS's scripting language if
you want to see strange concepts by the way) will learn R in no time.
Getting used to the commands may seem complicated at first but once
you deal with real data, which tends to be really messy, it will be
difficult to find the right menu anyway, because typically it doesn't
exist yet.
Further, as the amount of data in our area is also constantly on the
rise: From my own experience, for my master and my PhD I analyzed
whole body joint kinematics:
Master: ~216000 Data pts
PhD: ~157500000 Data pts
Today, there is just no escape from getting profficient in at least
one programming language. Might as well be R.
Anyway, I'll try the R commander over the weekend and give some
feedback.

Cheers
Rob

--- In sportsci_rtutorial@yahoogroups.com, "Will Hopkins" <will@...>
wrote:
>
> I presume folks won't mind if this interaction continues via the
list.
> Others might make some useful comments.
>
>
>
> I hadn't realized a menu-driven R was up and running. If that's
what the
> NYT article was referring to, it would imply that menu-driven R is
easier to
> use than all the other menu-driven stats packages. Is R's menu
interface any
> different from any other? Does the interface somehow capture R's
strange
> concepts/jargon for specifying data and models (which I still
haven't
> attempted to understand, I must admit)?
>
>
>
> Will
>
>
>
> From: sportsci_rtutorial@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:sportsci_rtutorial@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Ian Shrier
> Sent: Friday, 9 January 2009 11:17 a.m.
> To: sportsci_rtutorial@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [sportsci_rtutorial] R article at the new york times
>
>
>
> Will
>
>
>
> Within R, there is a feature called R Commander. Once loaded, it is
> menu-driven. Further, as it runs, it writes the code so you learn
how to
> program as you go along.
>
>
>
> Unfortunately, I only learned about it after I went through the
steepest
> part of the learning curve. And although I probably should use it
sometimes,
> I tend to rely on the help documentation or my statistician friend
who is an
> R grand master...very helpful if you have one.
>
>
>
> Ian Shrier MD, PhD, Dip Sport Med, FACSM
> Associate Professor, Dep't of Fam Med, McGill University
>
> Past-President, Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine
>
> Check out: www.casm-acms.org
> SKYPE name: ian.shrier
>
> Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Community Studies
> SMBD-Jewish General Hospital
> 3755 Cote Ste-Catherine Rd
> Montreal, Qc H3T 1E2
> Tel: 514-340-7563
> Fax: 514-340-7564
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 8-Jan-09, at 4:05 PM, Will Hopkins wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> "But R has also quickly found a following because statisticians,
engineers
> and scientists without computer programming skills find it easy to
use."
>
> This is an example of why I don't read newspapers on or off line.
>
>
>
> Will
>
>
>
> From: sportsci_rtutorial@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:sportsci_rtutorial@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of gerrobrein
> Sent: Friday, 9 January 2009 1:29 a.m.
> To: sportsci_rtutorial@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [sportsci_rtutorial] R article at the new york times
>
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/technology/business-
> computing/07program.html?_r=2
>