[FORGED] Export R output in Excel

(Private -- as this is just my personal opinion and not really helpful).

I found your comments informative. Thank you.

My own experience with scientific colleagues -- biologists mostly --
who use Excel in the way that you describe is that the "haptic" (great
word!) ease with which they manipulate the data almost inevitably
results in errors. That is, the *lack* of enforced structure in Excel
allows them to do things that they shouldn't or don't mean to do,
typically without raising any flags, typically causing downstream
errors that can be hard to trace. Irreproducibility follows.

My point is that the structure that you consider burdensome -- at
least initially -- is desirable exactly because it forces them to
think more carefully about what they are doing. Debugging, or worse
yet, failure to realize that debugging is needed, takes far more time
and is far more consequential.

As I said, just my opinion, no reply necessary, and I do appreciate
your thoughtful remarks.

Best,
Bert Gunter

Bert Gunter

"The trouble with having an open mind is that people keep coming along
and sticking things into it."
-- Opus (aka Berkeley Breathed in his "Bloom County" comic strip )

On Thu, Dec 29, 2016 at 2:16 AM, Erich Subscriptions

[FORGED] Export R output in Excel

Thread (18 messages)