[R-pkg-devel] UseR! Session: Navigating the jungle of R packages.

Fri, Feb 10, 2017 3:44 PM

Hi All,

A few points:

1. With respect to the CRAN Task Views, they are arguably buried a bit in the menus and that may contribute to low traffic. There is no direct link from the R Home page, albeit, there is a link on the main CRAN page, which is not prominent. I wonder if it might be reasonable for the main R web site maintainers to consider putting a link to the Task Views just below the CRAN link in the Download section or, perhaps better, in the Documentation section.

2. A group of us, led by Frank Harrell, who met during the DSC meeting out at Stanford last summer after the useR! meeting worked on modifying the online content for getting "Help with R" on the main R site home page. We added a brief section on the Task Views in the "R Help on the Internet" section to at least incrementally raise awareness:

  https://www.r-project.org/help.html

3. I see that Spencer's name is listed below and would presume that his 'sos' package would be featured in such a presentation? We also mention 'sos' on the above help page.

4. I would echo Jim's comments below regarding the use of Google, but I would add the use of http://www.rseek.org, which does have a tab for 'packages' on the results page when doing keyword searches. rseek.org is my first resource when searching for functionality in packages or posts to the lists.


Regards,

Marc Schwartz

On Feb 10, 2017, at 4:26 PM, Jim Lemon <drjimlemon at gmail.com> wrote:

This discussion started me thinking about searching for a function or
package, as many questions on the R help list indicate the that poster
couldn't find (or hasn't searched for) what they want. I don't think I
have ever used task views. If I haven't got a clue where to look for
something, I use Google. I can't recall an occasion when I didn't get
an answer, even if it was that what I wanted didn't exist. Perhaps we
should ask why Google is so good at answering uninformed questions, in
particular about R. I'm not the only person on the help list who
advises the clueless to try Google.

Jim


On Sat, Feb 11, 2017 at 3:51 AM, Ben Bolker <bbolker at gmail.com> wrote:

 I definitely read the task views and advise others to do so.  I
don't know how representative my little corner of the world is,
though.

 I have an embryonic task view on mixed models at
https://github.com/bbolker/mixedmodels-misc/blob/master/MixedModels.ctv
but the perfect is the enemy of the good ...


On Fri, Feb 10, 2017 at 9:56 AM, J C Nash <profjcnash at gmail.com> wrote:

We'd be more than happy to have you contribute directly. The goal is not
just an
information session, but to get some movement to ways to make the package
collection(s)
easier to use effectively. Note to selves: "effectively" is important -- we
could make
things easy by only recommending a few packages.

Best, JN


On 2017-02-10 09:29 AM, Michael Dewey wrote:

Dear all

That seems an interesting session. I am the maintainer of one of the CRAN
Task Views (MetaAnalysis) and will attend
unless I am successful in the draw for Wimbledon tickets.

Just in case I strike lucky one question I would have raised from the
floor if I were there would have been "Does anyone
read the Task Views?". Since I started mine I have received only a couple
of suggestions for additions including a very
abrupt one about a package which had been included for months but whose
author clearly did not read before writing. So I
would ask whether we need to focus much energy on the Task Views.

So, maybe see you there, maybe not.


On 16/01/2017 14:57, ProfJCNash wrote:

Navigating the Jungle of R Packages

The R ecosystem has many packages in various collections,
especially CRAN, Bioconductor, and GitHub. While this
richness of choice speaks to the popularity and
importance of R, the large number of contributed packages
makes it difficult for users to find appropriate tools for
their work.

A session on this subject has been approved for UseR! in
Brussels. The tentative structure is three short
introductory presentations, followed by discussion or
planning work to improve the tools available to help
users find the best R package and function for their needs.

The currently proposed topics are

- wrapper packages that allow diverse tools that perform
 similar functions to be accessed by unified calls

- collaborative mechanisms to create and update Task Views

- search and sort tools to find packages.

At the time of writing we have tentative presenters for
the topics, but welcome others. We hope these presentations
at useR! 2017 will be part of a larger discussion that will
contribute to an increased team effort after the conference
to improve the the support for R users in these areas.


John Nash, Julia Silge, Spencer Graves

[R-pkg-devel] UseR! Session: Navigating the jungle of R packages.

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