[tech-spec] Re: R arguments

  • From: "Daniel Flam" <daniel@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <tech-spec@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 12:57:36 -0400

I agree:

one should try to write R in R

especially if you are like me and just want to do statistical analysis or
throw some math at data.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dirk Eddelbuettel" <edd@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tech-spec@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 12:23 PM
Subject: [tech-spec] Re: R arguments


> On Thu, Oct 14, 2004 at 12:06:32PM -0400, Tom McCubbin wrote:
> > Thank you.  I thought my text was invisible.
> >
> > I too have a tool (Tom's Big Fat Trader).  The name is not perfectly
> > suitable, as it is really for back testing, simulating the
> > impact/interelationships of models, allocation models, and dynamic
> > universe constraints.   As well as analysis of the results.
> >
> > It is written in C++, and uses a system to load modules at runtime that
> > can implement various components of the system(s).  However, it is not
> > accessible to many due to the language, so i'm embedding python into the
> > system to make it scriptable and improve productivity.  I looked at Rpy
> > and was not too keen on its implementation.  So i am considering
> > re-wraping R to make it more friendly from Python.
> >
> > Do you have any input on what you would like to see in an enhanced
> > R-wrapper to Python?   I'm happy to contrib the code if it is
> > helpful...i'm a long time open source guy.
>
> Have you seen Duncan Temple Lang's work (formerly Bell Labs / ATT
Research,
> now at UC Davis) at wwww.omegahat.org?  He has a _ton_ of projects many of
> which involve embedding R into other things (databases, browsers, general
> toolkits like Gtk, spreadsheets like gnumeric, etc pp ...) as well as
links
> to other language such as Java, Perl, Python.  He has a genius-level
> productivity, but never quite manages to get his software to broad release
/
> production level. I am Debian maintainer for some of his code, and had
many
> goes at packaging RSPerl and RSPython but never quite found them
> sufficiently developed to do it.
>
> To fully tie Python to R you need a better than average understanding of
the
> innards of the two systems. That limits the number of contributors and
> excludes me. But you could talk to people on the r-devel list (which I
read)
> or on the omegahat lists (which I don't read, not sure how active theys
> still are).
>
> Personally, I changed my viewpoint over the years and now think that R
gets
> so many things so darn right when it comes to data work, is
cross-platform,
> robust and easily extensible (with e.g. C++) that I'd make it the core
> rather than the satellite. But recognising the uphill struggle that
leanring
> the S language is, I can see how loosely coupling it may be a better first
> step for getting a toe in the water.
>
> Dirk
>
>
> -- 
> Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have
others.
>                                                 -- Groucho Marx
>
>



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