Choice of graphics package
I use R to teach graduate students in the life sciences (mostly ecology but branching out). So far I show students both lattice and base graphics. I like lattice graphics for exploration because of the ease of faceting plots. I use base graphics for "production plots" because I find it easier to tell people how to add things to a base plot (multiple lines etc). To do that effectively with lattice graphics you have to learn how to write panel functions, and that can be a mind bending experience (it was/is for me). I have not developed the facility with ggplot that I have with base graphics, so I can't comment on it. I think if one comes to truly understand the ggplot model it will be better/faster/easier than either base or lattice graphics, but it's a new model. I don't know which will be easier to teach to students hitting it "cold". I'd be interested in hearing from people that have tried teaching ggplot to students with no prior expeRience. -- Drew Tyre School of Natural Resources University of Nebraska-Lincoln 416 Hardin Hall, East Campus 3310 Holdrege Street Lincoln, NE 68583-0974 phone: +1 402 472 4054 fax: +1 402 472 2946 email: atyre2 at unl.edu http://snr.unl.edu/tyre http://aminpractice.blogspot.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/atiretoo
From: R-sig-teaching <r-sig-teaching-bounces at r-project.org> on behalf of Granaas, Michael <Michael.Granaas at usd.edu>
Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2015 9:23 AM
To: R-sig-teaching
Subject: [R-sig-teaching] Choice of graphics package
Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2015 9:23 AM
To: R-sig-teaching
Subject: [R-sig-teaching] Choice of graphics package
I am working with first year grad students in psychology and have sloooooooowly been adding some R content to the course. I do not have a systematic plan and I haven't yet found the teaching related materials that will be a good match to my particular course structure. I noticed Randall Pruim's comment: "4) For teaching, the decision between base graphics, lattice, and ggplot2 (and soon ggvis) is an important one to think through. Depending on the goals of the course, I can imagine good arguments for using lattice or ggplot2. I don?t find base graphics compelling for teaching and never teach it to my students." Which caused me to wonder....which package should I be focusing on? For these students I am focused on fairly basic graphics such as boxplots, histograms, scatterplots. What are the pros/cons of the different packages that I should consider as I work to be more planful in my incorporation of R? Michael __________________________________________________________ Michael Granaas mgranaas at usd.edu Department of Psychology SL: VRprofessor Resident University of South Dakota 414 E. Clark St Phone: 605 677 5295 Vermillion, SD 57069 FAX: 605 677 3195 ____________________________________________________________ My Personal Pet Project: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kaseyo/226/38/77 Free classrooms for educators exploring Second Life _______________________________________________ R-sig-teaching at r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-teaching