From josh.m.ulrich at gmail.com  Thu Mar 12 21:57:22 2009
From: josh.m.ulrich at gmail.com (Josh Ulrich)
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:57:22 -0500
Subject: [Rd] surprising behaviour of names<-
In-Reply-To: <a695148b0903121324q16003f8cj549c1027b9019e43@mail.gmail.com>
References: <49B67CB1.8060005@idi.ntnu.no> <49B81186.4070107@idi.ntnu.no>
	<20090312154008.56706f38@berwin-nus1> <49B8D060.8090206@idi.ntnu.no>
	<20090312173231.7a2929df@berwin-nus1> <49B8DB8F.5030704@idi.ntnu.no>
	<20090312213508.719afa73@berwin5> <49B91A7E.50107@idi.ntnu.no>
	<20090312231240.6a061f0b@berwin5>
	<a695148b0903121324q16003f8cj549c1027b9019e43@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <8cca69990903121357g3027d40cgcd67f0d5dd54973b@mail.gmail.com>

On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 3:24 PM, G. Jay Kerns <gkerns at ysu.edu> wrote:
> Wacek Kusnierczyk wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
>> as i explained a few months ago, i study r to find examples of bad
>> design. ?if anyone in the r core is interested in having the problems i
>> report fixed, i'm happy to get involved in a discussion about the design
>> and implementation. ?if not, i'm happy with just pointing out the issues.
>
> :-)
>
> I am prompted to imagine someone pointing out to the volunteers of the
> International Red Cross - on the field of a natural disaster, no less
> - that their uniforms are not an acceptably consistent shade of
> pink... or that the screws on their tourniquets do not have the
> appropriate pitch as to minimize the friction for the turner...

Your analogy may overstate the case a bit, since R volunteers - while
providing a valuable service to the community - are not dealing with
matters of life and death.

Habitat for Humanity (an organization that provides free housing to
the under-privileged) would be a better comparison.  I'm sure those
volunteers would appreciate a critique of their work, provided the
critique was not condescending and focused on serving the community
better, not to showcase the acumen of the one giving the critique.

>
> As a practicing statistician I am simply thankful that the bleeding is
> stopped. ? :-)
>
> Cheers to R-Core (and the hundreds of other volunteers).
> Jay
>

I second that.  Thanks to R-Core et al for all their generous efforts.

>
>
> ***************************************************
> G. Jay Kerns, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor
> Department of Mathematics & Statistics
> Youngstown State University
> Youngstown, OH 44555-0002 USA
> Office: 1035 Cushwa Hall
> Phone: (330) 941-3310 Office (voice mail)
> -3302 Department
> -3170 FAX
> E-mail: gkerns at ysu.edu
> http://www.cc.ysu.edu/~gjkerns/
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>

Best,
Josh
--
http://quantemplation.blogspot.com



[Rd] surprising behaviour of names<-
Josh Ulrich