From MSchwartz at MedAnalytics.com  Mon Dec 20 21:20:10 2004
From: MSchwartz at MedAnalytics.com (Marc Schwartz)
Date: Mon Dec 20 21:20:20 2004
Subject: [Rd] R and Gnumeric?
In-Reply-To: <x2llbsvk1u.fsf@biostat.ku.dk>
References: <1103556024.25353.18.camel@horizons.localdomain>
	<x2llbsvk1u.fsf@biostat.ku.dk>
Message-ID: <1103574010.10887.51.camel@horizons.localdomain>

On Mon, 2004-12-20 at 20:36 +0100, Peter Dalgaard wrote:
> Marc Schwartz <MSchwartz@medanalytics.com> writes:
> 
> > I was just curious if anyone from R Core might comment on the nature and
> > scope of the cooperation, as I could not find anything at the Gnumeric
> > web site on this.
> > 
> > Does this suggest that perhaps code sharing and/or some level of
> > validation is taking place on selected Gnumeric math/stat functions?
> 
> It's fairly informal, and mainly on the special functions level.
> Gnumeric imports bits (all?) of R's standalone math library. You may
> have seen some bug reports from terra@gnome.org (aka Morten Welinder)
> on accuracy issues and the like. Morten is a Gnome/Gnumeric developer
> and works with R-core members (I believe mostly Martin Maechler) from
> time to time. If you look at Morten's reports, I'm sure you'll agree
> that he is rather good at actively seeking out erroneous and
> suboptimal code.

Peter,

Thanks for your reply and comments. 

I had to go back to the R Bugs database and review his filings. Once I
did, it triggered memories of the reports and some of the associated
replies. He also filed some older ones under terra@diku.org.

I do agree on his vigor with respect to these issues, especially since
both sides benefit from the interaction.

It's good to see the cooperation. As I mentioned in my initial post, it
can be helpful to folks to know that it is taking place. 

While one might not indicate that Gnumeric has any type of "Good
Housekeeping Seal of Approval" imprimatur from R Core, it is good to see
that the Gnumeric team and presumably Morten specifically, are motivated
to enhance their application in this fashion by leveraging the expertise
here.

At least at this point in comparison, it would seem that the OO.org
folks are more focused on Excel compatibility in Calc to a fault, which
can become problematic on a variety of levels. At least they seemed to
have avoided the RAND() bug in Excel 2003...

Best regards,

Marc


[Rd] R and Gnumeric?
Marc Schwartz