Dear All, So far I have mainly used R for data analysis and simple numerics (integration of functions, splines etc...). However, I have recently been astonished at finding out that many things I thought were only achievable with Fortran or C can be done e.g. entirely using MatLab. When I try asking around if the same could be achieved by R, inevitably the answer is that either people do not know R or there is so much numerical MatLab code (for instance for solving partial differential equations), that there is no point in switching to R. Does anyone know if this is really the situation? I am wondering if there is anywhere a kind of freely available collection of reliable numerical software written in R which is not only geared towards statistics and data analysis. Kind Regards Lorenzo
Lorenzo, You may want to look at Octave, which is a MatLab gnu clone: http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/ Regards, Tom Lorenzo Isella wrote:> Dear All, > So far I have mainly used R for data analysis and simple numerics > (integration of functions, splines etc...). > However, I have recently been astonished at finding out that many > things I thought were only achievable with Fortran or C can be done > e.g. entirely using MatLab. > When I try asking around if the same could be achieved by R, > inevitably the answer is that either people do not know R or there is > so much numerical MatLab code (for instance for solving partial > differential equations), that there is no point in switching to R. > Does anyone know if this is really the situation? I am wondering if > there is anywhere a kind of freely available collection of reliable > numerical software written in R which is not only geared towards > statistics and data analysis. > Kind Regards > > Lorenzo > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at 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. >-- Thomas E Adams National Weather Service Ohio River Forecast Center 1901 South State Route 134 Wilmington, OH 45177 EMAIL: thomas.adams at noaa.gov VOICE: 937-383-0528 FAX: 937-383-0033
On 2/9/2007 5:00 AM, Lorenzo Isella wrote:> Dear All, > So far I have mainly used R for data analysis and simple numerics > (integration of functions, splines etc...). > However, I have recently been astonished at finding out that many > things I thought were only achievable with Fortran or C can be done > e.g. entirely using MatLab. > When I try asking around if the same could be achieved by R, > inevitably the answer is that either people do not know R or there is > so much numerical MatLab code (for instance for solving partial > differential equations), that there is no point in switching to R. > Does anyone know if this is really the situation? I am wondering if > there is anywhere a kind of freely available collection of reliable > numerical software written in R which is not only geared towards > statistics and data analysis.CRAN is the place to look, but I wouldn't expect to find PDE solvers there. (I haven't looked, they may well be there.) Matlab does a good job at those, and most users who want to do that sort of calculation are familiar with Matlab, so there isn't much motivation to rewrite those things for R. On the other hand, if you already have Fortran or C code to do these and you like it, it is not very hard to write an R interface to it, so you can put together your own package and access that code from R. I think this would be a big improvement over standalone Fortran or C (because the data handling and graphics functions in R are much easier to use than most Fortran or C libraries); whether it would be an improvement over Matlab really depends on what you want to do, how good your existing code is, and how well you already know Matlab. Duncan Murdoch