Hi! I'm new to R programming, though I've been programming in other languages for years. One thing I find most frustrating about R is how difficult it is to use Google (or any other search tool) to look for answers to my R-related questions. With languages with even slightly more distinctive names like Perl, Java, Python, Matlab, OCaml, etc., usually including the name of the language in the query is enough to ensure that the top hits are relevant. But this trick does not work for R, because the letter R appears by itself in so many pages, that the chaff overwhelms the wheat, so to speak. So I'm curious to learn what strategies R users have found to get around this annoyance. TIA! KJ [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
See http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/ for many options for searching for R stuff. If you type R into Google, the R home page usually comes up first. I was amazed when this happened 9 years ago. And now, if I type "R lmer" into Google (without the quotes), a whole bunch of relevant stuff comes up, although it isn't so systematically arranged as with the other search options. Jon On 05/20/09 09:02, Kynn Jones wrote:> Hi! I'm new to R programming, though I've been programming in other > languages for years. > > One thing I find most frustrating about R is how difficult it is to use > Google (or any other search tool) to look for answers to my R-related > questions. With languages with even slightly more distinctive names like > Perl, Java, Python, Matlab, OCaml, etc., usually including the name of the > language in the query is enough to ensure that the top hits are relevant. > But this trick does not work for R, because the letter R appears by itself > in so many pages, that the chaff overwhelms the wheat, so to speak. > > So I'm curious to learn what strategies R users have found to get around > this annoyance. > > TIA! > > KJ > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at r-project.org 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.-- Jonathan Baron, Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania Home page: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~baron Editor: Judgment and Decision Making (http://journal.sjdm.org)
www.rseek.org is the best solution to this that I have found. Ian kynn wrote:> > Hi! I'm new to R programming, though I've been programming in other > languages for years. > > One thing I find most frustrating about R is how difficult it is to use > Google (or any other search tool) to look for answers to my R-related > questions. With languages with even slightly more distinctive names like > Perl, Java, Python, Matlab, OCaml, etc., usually including the name of the > language in the query is enough to ensure that the top hits are relevant. > But this trick does not work for R, because the letter R appears by > itself > in so many pages, that the chaff overwhelms the wheat, so to speak. > > So I'm curious to learn what strategies R users have found to get around > this annoyance. > > TIA! > > KJ > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at r-project.org 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. > >-- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/How-to-google-for-R-stuff--tp23635068p23635296.html Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> One thing I find most frustrating about R is how difficult it is to use > Google (or any other search tool) to look for answers to my R-related > questions. With languages with even slightly more distinctive nameslike> Perl, Java, Python, Matlab, OCaml, etc., usually including the name ofthe> language in the query is enough to ensure that the top hits arerelevant.> But this trick does not work for R, because the letter R appears byitself> in so many pages, that the chaff overwhelms the wheat, so to speak.There are loads of ways of finding information. Use the function RSiteSearch, or The R mail archive http://www.googlesyndicatedsearch.com/u/newcastlemaths RSeek http://www.rseek.org/ R Search http://www.dangoldstein.com/search_r.html The R Graph Gallery http://addictedtor.free.fr/graphiques/ R Help Wiki http://wiki.r-project.org/rwiki/doku.php R manuals http://cran.r-project.org/manuals.html FAQs http://cran.r-project.org/faqs.html Task Views http://cran.r-project.org/web/views/ News http://www.r-project.org/doc/Rnews/index.html Books http://www.r-project.org/doc/bib/R-books.html Cranberries http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/cranberries/ R-Forge (http://r-forge.r-project.org/) and Bioconductor ( http://www.bioconductor.org/GettingStarted) also have their own search tools. Regards, Richie. Mathematical Sciences Unit HSL ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ATTENTION: This message contains privileged and confidential inform...{{dropped:20}}
Kynn Jones wrote:> Hi! I'm new to R programming, though I've been programming in other > languages for years. > > One thing I find most frustrating about R is how difficult it is to use > Google (or any other search tool) to look for answers to my R-related > questions. With languages with even slightly more distinctive names like > Perl, Java, Python, Matlab, OCaml, etc., usually including the name of the > language in the query is enough to ensure that the top hits are relevant. > But this trick does not work for R, because the letter R appears by itself > in so many pages, that the chaff overwhelms the wheat, so to speak. > > So I'm curious to learn what strategies R users have found to get around > this annoyance. > > TIA! > > KJ > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at r-project.org 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. >Hi Kynn, I've had this problem too in the beginning. Luckily, my personal experience has taught me that almost all relevant R-related information can be found either by searching directly through the archives of the different R-forums or by using the functions "RSiteSearch()" or "help.search()". The reference manuals provided with each package (easily accessible on CRAN) are also invaluable sources of information. Unfortunately, phrasing queries in a way that will yield relevant results is sometimes hard. Knowledge of the terminology mostly comes from experience, so patience is in order. Of course, as a last recourse, there's always the mailing list. Bottom line is, I suggest you try to avoid generic search engines and concentrate your efforts on the different R-forums (note that there are also package-specific forums). I suspect the more experienced R-users might have better strategies to propose though... Cheers, -- *Luc Villandr?* /Biostatistician McGill University Health Center - Montreal Children's Hospital Research Institute/
I was having the same frustration so I made a Google custom search engine for Open Math Tools: http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=015659631714008342946:wolsniqtrxc It gives preferences to results from r-project.org, octave.org, maxima.sourceforge.net, and the mailing list archives from those projects. It also has some other smaller pages that contain tutorials for those tools. It includes results from the broader web as well, so if there is a highly ranked article from wikipedia or mathworld that will show up too. Here's a short write-up with example searches: http://j-stults.blogspot.com/2009/05/open-math-tools-custom-search-engine.html If any folks on the list out there have any suggestions or would like to be a 'contributor' on it post a reply with a site to add to the preference list , or click the 'volunteer to contribute' link on the search engine homepage. Good luck with your R searching. On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 9:02 AM, Kynn Jones <kynnjo at gmail.com> wrote:> Hi! ?I'm new to R programming, though I've been programming in other > languages for years. > > One thing I find most frustrating about R is how difficult it is to use > Google (or any other search tool) to look for answers to my R-related > questions. ?With languages with even slightly more distinctive names like > Perl, Java, Python, Matlab, OCaml, etc., usually including the name of the > language in the query is enough to ensure that the top hits are relevant. > ?But this trick does not work for R, because the letter R appears by itself > in so many pages, that the chaff overwhelms the wheat, so to speak. > > So I'm curious to learn what strategies R users have found to get around > this annoyance. > > TIA! > > KJ > > ? ? ? ?[[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at r-project.org 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. >-- Joshua Stults Website: http://j-stults.blogspot.com
Dear Dieter:
Thanks for the correction. I failed to test the code as written
before I posted it.
Spencer Graves
Dieter Menne wrote:> spencerg <spencer.graves <at> prodsyse.com> writes:
>
>
>> de <- RSiteSearch.function("differential equation")
>> des <- RSiteSearch.function("differential equations")
>> # With "de" and "des", each finds things missed by
the other.
>> de. <- de | des # combine into one
>> sumDE <- packageSum2(de.) # add details on installed packages.
>>
>
> Should be
>
> PackageSum2(de.)
>
> Dieter
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org 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.
>
>
Le mercredi 20 mai 2009 ? 09:02 -0400, Kynn Jones a ?crit :> Hi! I'm new to R programming, though I've been programming in other > languages for years. > > One thing I find most frustrating about R is how difficult it is to use > Google (or any other search tool) to look for answers to my R-related > questions. With languages with even slightly more distinctive names like > Perl, Java, Python, Matlab, OCaml, etc., usually including the name of the > language in the query is enough to ensure that the top hits are relevant. > But this trick does not work for R, because the letter R appears by itself > in so many pages, that the chaff overwhelms the wheat, so to speak. > > So I'm curious to learn what strategies R users have found to get around > this annoyance.ISTR having this question or very close ones at least thrice in the last two months. Time for a FAQ entry ? (It does not seem to exist : I checked...) Emmanuel Charpentier
> You are very picky. When I enter > > R residuals > > into Google, 8 out of the first 10 hits are for R topics. Isn't that > good enough for you? > > I think this is true of most Google searches: the letter R mostoften> means the R project.Although it does not appear to be a factor with this search, it is worth remembering that Google will customize search results for individual users. I have found with certain computer/linux searches that when I search from my Google Account I _do_ get different results compared to when I am not logged into my google account. I tried this search and was still able to easily find R related materials, but it is worth remembering that for those of us who use Google services heavily and have accounts, our results may differ. -- This is the price and the promise of citizenship. - Barack Obama
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one option could be to type into Google bar something like (for instance for the lme function): filetype R lm On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 9:02 AM, Kynn Jones <kynnjo at gmail.com> wrote:> Hi! ?I'm new to R programming, though I've been programming in other > languages for years. > > One thing I find most frustrating about R is how difficult it is to use > Google (or any other search tool) to look for answers to my R-related > questions. ?With languages with even slightly more distinctive names like > Perl, Java, Python, Matlab, OCaml, etc., usually including the name of the > language in the query is enough to ensure that the top hits are relevant. > ?But this trick does not work for R, because the letter R appears by itself > in so many pages, that the chaff overwhelms the wheat, so to speak. > > So I'm curious to learn what strategies R users have found to get around > this annoyance. > > TIA! > > KJ > > ? ? ? ?[[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at r-project.org 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. >