Dear R Developers, I am writing for doing the following suggestions: * Bugs: o Add in Bugzilla an Area in order to request membership for bug reporting, which shall itself include another area to introduce a little dissertation for justifying "Why someone would like to be a member of Bugzilla" for being able to report proper bugs, and avoid spam. o Now, new R serious members cannot report properly bugs. * That, in the R Base distribution, the following packages are included as default (pre-installed): o ggplot2. o dplyr. o tidyr. As in 2017, these are essential, in my opinion, in R programming. * And that, as regards R Project: o Improve the CRAN & R Project web pages, giving them a more modern look and feel (Such as the Python.org webpage), in order to "sell" better R to the everybody. o Improve the basic GUI distributed with R, with some of the core features of RStudio Desktop (GPL). Or even make RStudio Desktop to replace the R default GUI, with another name, in its executable version. o Enable a Suggestion web page / forum in the R Project webpage in order to boost core R Open Innovation. Thank you all. [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
Hello! Thanks to Juan for his suggestions. I would like to voice my opinion for and against some of these.> o Add in Bugzilla an Area in order to request membership for bug reporting, which shall itself include another area to introduce a little dissertation for justifying "Why someone would like to be a member of Bugzilla" for being able to report proper bugs, and avoid spam. > > o Now, new R serious members cannot report properly bugs.I too was annoyed by the state of the bug reporting system when I first started using R, and that was even before automatic account creation was disabled. I think the situation could be improved. I don't think it's a huge burden to tell bug reporters to ask for an account via the R-devel mailing list. But from what I can see the bug tracker doesn't make it clear that this has to be done. We should at least post a message on the main page explaining how people can create an account. This would be less work than what Juan is suggesting, but I think sufficient for our needs.> * That, in the R Base distribution, the following packages are included as default (pre-installed): > > o ggplot2. > > o dplyr. > > o tidyr.I think this is a terrible idea. I've only been using R for a few years and while I find these "tidyverse" packages interesting and use them on occasion, I've also concluded that they change too quickly to be used in code that I want to stay working for a long time. They are largely based on experimental concepts. Being able to change and evolve is part of the strength of these packages. So I think putting them in the R Base distribution would be bad for all parties.> * And that, as regards R Project: > > o Improve the CRAN & R Project web pages, giving them a more modern look and feel (Such as the Python.org webpage), in order to "sell" better R to the everybody. > > o Improve the basic GUI distributed with R, with some of the core features of RStudio Desktop (GPL). Or even make RStudio Desktop to replace the R default GUI, with another name, in its executable version. > > o Enable a Suggestion web page / forum in the R Project webpage in order to boost core R Open Innovation.I think the R project web page looks great. It's simple and it loads quickly and doesn't try to mesmerize people. I like R's command line interface. It completes on symbols and files and I can easily use it with my favorite editor and run it in the terminal of my choice. I don't think that more effort should be put into developing bloated GUIs which try to enforce a standard way of interacting with R. I think a "forum" or bulletin board system would be a detraction from the project and a distraction for the project leaders. Users have Stack Exchange - it's better than any forum we could create, and it takes care of itself. That's my two cents, more or less. Thanks, Frederick
Thank you Frederick for your comments: They are really well justified.> I think a "forum" or bulletin board system would be a detraction from the project and a distraction for the project leaders. Users have Stack Exchange - it's better than any forum we could create, and it > takes care of itself.An excellent idea would be to add in the R Project Webpage a link to RSeek, in order to put all together. This can be done in a fast and easy way.> I too was annoyed by the state of the bug reporting system when I first started using R, and that was even before automatic account creation was disabled. I think the situation could be improved. > I don't think it's a huge burden to tell bug reporters to ask for an account via the R-devel mailing list. But from what I can see the bug tracker doesn't make it clear that this has to be done. We should at > least post a message on the main page explaining how people can create an account. This would be less work than what Juan is suggesting, but I think sufficient for our needs.Yes, clarifying in the RProject webpage that accounts could be requested for bug reporting in Bugzilla would be a great news, but it shall be really good justified.> I think this is a terrible idea. I've only been using R for a few years and while I find these "tidyverse" packages interesting and use them on occasion, I've also concluded that they change too quickly to > be used in code that I want to stay working for a long time. They are largely based on experimental concepts. Being able to change and evolve is part of the strength of these packages. So I think putting > them in the R Base distribution would be bad for all parties.Totally agree.> I think the R project web page looks great. It's simple and it loads quickly and doesn't try to mesmerize people. I like R's command line interface. It completes on symbols and files and I can easily use it > with my favorite editor and run it in the terminal of my choice. I don't think that more effort should be put into developing bloated GUIs which try to enforce a standard way of interacting with R.I agree, but, in my opinion, the RGUI icons shall have a little bit more modern look. Just a bit. Thank you, Juan