Just adding to my previous post, I looked back and this forum has at times?had
discussions in which the use of packages related to R STUDIO and/or?the
tidyverse was considered somehow not aligned with the mailing list.?
Many of the above are, in MY opinion, way more relevant to people using R?in
their daily lives as some are very popular packages.
I am not saying a package focused on teaching Linear Algebra is not useful?or
that the audience is limited. I was saying that R was partially
designed?specifically for many things done in linear Algebra to be doable in
relatively?few steps and thus a hospitable place all on it's own and a great
place to host?such an add-on package.
In my experience, though, most packages and modules out there do not
stand?alone. For serious uses, you must glue together various parts of what
the?package supplies with fairly routine code such as to read in data
and?convert it to the form needed, or to use results in other packages and so
on.
So my earlier replies were focused far wider on R indeed being a
hospitable?environment regardless of any specific packages supplied that zoomed
in?on parts of a specialized field of endeavor. I am glad someone supplied
one?such package for consideration but I also think a course could be
taught?where most of the functionality needed was from base R and some
other?packages already widely used except perhaps for some esoteric parts.
Just as a BTW, I have seen packages that use a GUI to automate loading?in data,
applying various transformations and analyses on it and producing?some kinds of
output. Much of it is checkboxes and the like. But the part of it?that I
appreciated the most was that it was able to show you the underlying?R code it
generated which you could copy and modify for all kinds of?additional needs you
may have that the GUI did not cover or that ...
Some tools need not replace but augment and for professionals, it can be?better
to be able to see what is going on under the hood, especially if?problems arise.
So if the class being taught is to people who will continue using it for years,
I?might teach it differently as compared to those just needing three credits.
It?is sort of like the multiple tracks I have seen for undergraduate classes
in?a subject like Physics. My school had classes with or without derivations?and
Calculus and other math so some just had equations thrown at them?and others got
to understand why those equations worked the way they did?and how they were
"invented" and how to make others with some thought?and so on. But it
seems some schools now have a third track called?something like "Physics
for Poets" which cuts back on even showing?too many equations!
Linear Algebra and R can also be taught at multiple levels and being a
purist,?my preference is to UNDERSTAND things not just on the surface. But
most?people who are just passing by do not really need to learn much of it,
let?alone all of it. Yet it becomes very sad when some such cruisers later
on?decide to stick around and do additional sloppy work using what little?they
know or making R do things as similar to the methods they used?in some other
programming language.
That is part of why I made comments about the package as to whether?it really is
something people should continue to use heavily if they want?to do lots of work
in the field.?
-----Original Message-----
From: Avi Gross via R-help <r-help at r-project.org>
Cc: r-help at r-project.org <r-help at r-project.org>
Sent: Sat, Jun 25, 2022 2:09 pm
Subject: Re: [R] R for linear algebra
John,
I am not in any way disparaging the matlib package and it seems well-built for
the?limited purpose of teaching Linear Algebra rather than R. It is probably
a?better answer to a question about how to teach linear algebra while
making?some more complex tasks doable. I recall the frustration of multiplying
matrices?by hand as well as other operations, necessarily on smaller matrices.
My comments were more along the lines of the charter of this group which?seems
far narrower. Yes, people can ask for suggestions for a package?that does
something that may interest them but getting help on any one of?thousands of
such packages here would get overwhelming.>From what you said though, others looking for a package to use for?real
projects might well beware as it may indeed not be particularly?fast or in some
cases perhaps not as flexible.
-----Original Message-----
From: John Fox <jfox at mcmaster.ca>
To: Avi Gross <avigross at verizon.net>
Cc: r-help at r-project.org <r-help at r-project.org>
Sent: Sat, Jun 25, 2022 1:34 pm
Subject: Re: [R] R for linear algebra
Dear Avi,
The purpose of the matlib package is to *teach* linear algebra and
related topics, not to replace or even compete with similar
functionality in base R.
Consider, e.g., the following example for matlib::Inverse(), which
computes matrix inverses by Gaussian elimination (I've elided most of
the steps):
> example("Inverse")
Invers>? A <- matrix(c(2, 1, -1,
Invers+? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? -3, -1, 2,
Invers+? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? -2,? 1, 2), 3, 3, byrow=TRUE)
Invers>? Inverse(A)
? ? ? [,1] [,2] [,3]
[1,]? ? 4? ? 3? -1
[2,]? -2? -2? ? 1
[3,]? ? 5? ? 4? -1
Invers>? Inverse(A, verbose=TRUE, fractions=TRUE)
Initial matrix:
? ? ? [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6]
[1,]? 2? ? 1? -1? ? 1? ? 0? ? 0
[2,] -3? -1? ? 2? ? 0? ? 1? ? 0
[3,] -2? ? 1? ? 2? ? 0? ? 0? ? 1
row: 1
? exchange rows 1 and 2
? ? ? [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6]
[1,] -3? -1? ? 2? ? 0? ? 1? ? 0
[2,]? 2? ? 1? -1? ? 1? ? 0? ? 0
[3,] -2? ? 1? ? 2? ? 0? ? 0? ? 1
? multiply row 1 by -1/3
? ? ? [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6]
[1,]? ? 1? 1/3 -2/3? ? 0 -1/3? ? 0
[2,]? ? 2? ? 1? -1? ? 1? ? 0? ? 0
[3,]? -2? ? 1? ? 2? ? 0? ? 0? ? 1
? multiply row 1 by 2 and subtract from row 2
? ? ? [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6]
[1,]? ? 1? 1/3 -2/3? ? 0 -1/3? ? 0
[2,]? ? 0? 1/3? 1/3? ? 1? 2/3? ? 0
[3,]? -2? ? 1? ? 2? ? 0? ? 0? ? 1
. . .
? multiply row 3 by 2/5 and subtract from row 2
? ? ? [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6]
[1,]? 1? ? 0? ? 0? ? 4? ? 3? -1
[2,]? 0? ? 1? ? 0? -2? -2? ? 1
[3,]? 0? ? 0? ? 1? ? 5? ? 4? -1
? ? ? [,1] [,2] [,3]
[1,]? ? 4? ? 3? -1
[2,]? -2? -2? ? 1
[3,]? ? 5? ? 4? -1
And similarly for the other functions in the package. Moreover, the
functions in the package are transparently programmed in R rather than
calling (usually more efficient but relatively inaccessible) compiled
code, e.g., in a BLAS.
Best,
? John
On 2022-06-24 9:57 p.m., Avi Gross via R-help wrote:> Yes, Michael, packages like matlib will extend the basic support within
base R and I was amused at looking at what the package supported that I had not
thought about in years!
> https://www.rdocumentation.org/packages/matlib/versions/0.9.5
> However, once you through in packages/modules/libraries and other add-ons,
I suggest many languages share such gifts that then allow a serious amount of
what we call linear Algebra to be done, albeit with some work.
> In some ways my review of Linear Algebra in recent years showed me that
some things have changed from when I took it as part of a math degree in college
but a big change has been in finding so many uses of it now that computers can
do complicated things fast and even faster when using vectors and matrices as a
way to organize and consolidate operations, sometimes even in parallel.
> Packages can be nice and especially if they gather together lots of related
functions to teach a subject but anyone doing serious work should first make
sure they know what is in the base.
> If your matrix is A, you could load a package like psych to get a trace of
A:
> psych::tr(A)
> Or install? matlib with oodles of dependencies
>
> matlib::tr(A)
> Or without worrying if the user had installed and made available a library,
use built-ins like diag() and sum():
> sum(diag(A))
> And what does??matlib::Det(A) gain you most of the time that det(A) does
not tell you?
> A policy of this forum is to point out mostly what is part of standard R
and obviously there can??be specialized functionality in packages, albeit some
functions? in that package are unlikely to be taught in a first undergraduate
Linear Algebra course. I note matlib is billed as also?being for learning
Multivariate Statistics, and that is fine, just perhaps a tad of overkill.
> If the users have a question about the base R functionality, they can ask
about it here. But if they want to know why the cholesky function in matlib is
not working for them, ...
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael L Friendly <friendly at yorku.ca>
> To: org (R-help at r-project.org) <r-help at r-project.org>
> Cc: Avi Gross <avigross at verizon.net>; abouelmakarim1962 at
gmail.com>, <abouelmakarim1962 at gmail.com>
> Sent: Fri, Jun 24, 2022 9:12 pm
> Subject: Re: R for linear algebra
>
>? <!--#yiv2977149432 _filtered {} _filtered {}#yiv2977149432
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div.yiv2977149432WordSection1 {}-->Hello? ? The {matlib} package was
developed for just this purpose ? teaching and illustrating linear algebra
concepts and techniques. In my old 6140 Multivariate Data Analysis course, I
spent ~5-6 weeks on linear algebra.? ? CRAN:
https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/matlib/index.html GitHub:
https://github.com/friendly/matlib 6140:
http://euclid.psych.yorku.ca/www/psy6140/ ? There are quite a few vignettes? ?
--- Michael Friendly???? Email: friendly AT yorku DOT ca Professor, Psychology
Dept York University????? Voice: 416 736-2100 x66249 4700 Keele Street???
Web:http://www.datavis.ca | @datavisFriendly Toronto, ONT? M3J 1P3 CANADA? ?? ??
? Message: 11 Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2022 02:31:24 +0000 (UTC) From: Avi Gross
<avigross at verizon.net> To: "abouelmakarim1962 at gmail.com"
<abouelmakarim1962 at gmail.com>, ?????????????? "r-help at
r-project.org" <r-help at r-project.org> Subject: Re: [R] R for
Linear Algebra Message-ID: <1658548037.4476854.1656037884865 at
mail.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"? ? R is a
language specially made to do many things with vectors and matrices and arrays
with any reasonable?number of dimensions and also has a host of functions that
do things like make diagonal matrices, calculate?determinants and multiply them
in several ways,??invert them, get eigenvalues and much more if you look
for?packages. So the question becomes, what else do you feel you need for a
Linear Algebra course that a simple web?search would not have found like this:
https://towardsdatascience.com/intro-to-r-linear-algebra-2a4de2506c93 ?
https://towardsdatascience.com/intro-to-r-linear-algebra-2a4de2506c93#:~:text=R%20is%20especially%20handy%20with,solvers%20and%20dynamic%20indexing%20capabilities.
Unless I missed something, yes, R is more easily able to be used to do such
things than many other languages albeit?just about any language tends to have
access to a variety of functions that may do these things but are not?built in.?
?? ? -----Original Message----- From: AbouEl-Makarim Aboueissa
<abouelmakarim1962 at gmail.com> To: R mailing list <r-help at
r-project.org> Sent: Thu, Jun 23, 2022 10:39 am Subject: [R] R for Linear
Algebra? ? Re: R for Linear Algebra? ?? ?? ? Dear All:? ?? ?? ?? ?? ? In my STA
591 topics in Biostatistics Fall 2022, I am planning to spend about 5 weeks on
Linear Algebra.? ?? ?? ? I am wondering if someone has or knows the source for
some R functions/programs written for linear algebra calculations.? ?? ?? ? Also
if you know a book in Linear Algebra with R, will be a good help too.? ?? ? Any
help in this matter is highly appreciated in advance.
> ??? [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
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> PLEASE do read the posting guide
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--
John Fox, Professor Emeritus
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
web: https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/jfox/
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