On Reproducible Code
On 07/26/2012 01:50 AM, David L Carlson wrote:
We often refer requesters to the Posting Guide and chide them for not reading it. ... I hesitate to sound too optimistic, but there might be some advantage in making the statement more prominent and adding a reproducible example using dput().
The reponses to some requests for help do seem to get a volley of the "reproducible code" answers. Some, such as: I can't get the answer. PLEASE HELP!!! probably deserve it, but others appear to emerge from the overheated brain of the frustrated noob. With a wonderfully informative name like "dput", it is rather challenging to guess that this function is the way to calm the affronted guru with an example of your problem. I am particularly amused by the phrase "reproducible code", which sounds perilously close to the definition of a virus. Perhaps the neglected little message at the bottom of each email (which seems to reproduce itself) might be easier for the uninitiated to understand if it read: Please include the R code that is causing the problem _and_ enough data (see the "dput" function) for someone else to run the code and get the same problem. I can remember when I didn't know that there was a "dput" function. Jim