[R] Re: reducing learning curves?

Michael
Thu, 26 Jan 2006 09:47:11 -0000

Hi all,

Are there any R addon/pluggins with the following feature:

(1) command history? even stores the command history many days ago? Like
Matlab does?

(2) online help? for example, as I see it, the Rcmdr is a good companian for
a newbie like me who just touched R for 1.5 days. I can use Rcmdr to guide
me to learn the commands to use for data analysis. However, Rcmdr does not
have online help reference for R commands. For example, I saw the command
"abline" and I want to know how to use it, I have to copy/type it in
R-console, and do "?abline" things, so that I can obtain help. But
this is
troublesome, does any editor offer online-help for commands, so I just need
to hover my mouse on "abline" and then press F1 key then a help window
will
open automatically?

Thanks a lot!

On 1/25/06, Michael <comtech.usa@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I am really new to the R language. I am a long time Matlab and C++ user
> and I was "forced" to learn R because I am taking a statistics
class.
>
> I am seeking to reduce the learning curve to as smooth as possible.
>
> Are there any addon/plug-in features that can reduce the learning curve,
> for example, the following features can be very helpful for new learners:
>
> 1. Matlab-like command line auto-completion: Matlab has huge amount of
> command and nobody is able to remember them off the head. So a nice feature
> of Matlab command line is that I just need to type the first a few letters
> and then I press "TAB" key, there will be a list of possible
commands
> popping up so I just need to select one. This helps a lot in terms of
> learning for new comers. A more advanced command auto-completion is Visual
> C++-like, which is implemented in program editor. It helps a lot while
doing
> programming;
>
> 2. A good IDE editor with embedded inline debugger: can be as good as
> VC++, but also can be as simple as Matlab's debugger, which can
breakpoint
> and trace line-by-line... the editor can do syntax correction, syntax
check,
> syntax highlighting, code formatting, etc.
>
> Could you please recommend some good addon/plugins that have the above
> features?
>
> Could you please also suggest some tips/tools/tricks that can help me
> reduce the learning curve?
>
> Thank you very much!
>
> Michael.