I use a university wide license for version 6.2 and 7.0, but even in the
academic environment license management is difficult. While I could use the
features of large data objects, I don't want to deal with having software
that no longer works after a certain date. Certainly for our batch
applications that run unattended this would be difficult. My solution is to
stay with V6.1 as needed and switch to R for features available in R but not
in S (V6.1). Especially when it comes to spending government money, one has
to be careful.
For some applications, R works much faster. As core storage gets cheaper and
64 bit becomes a reality, I do not think that my need for Splus large data
objects will be necessary, by then R will have a package (if it does not
already). If it does let me know, I would like to try it out on some large
climate data sets.
The other downside to Splus V7.0 Enterprise edition is that it seems to take
longer to load. I have not benchmarked performance of V7.0 as compared to
V6.1.
Tom
-----Original Message-----
From: s-news-owner@lists.biostat.wustl.edu
[mailto:s-news-owner@lists.biostat.wustl.edu] On Behalf Of Fowler, Mark
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 11:42 AM
To: kwright@eskimo.com; s-news@lists.biostat.wustl.edu
Subject: Re: [S] Concerns about SPLUS version 7
Kevin, your perspective on S vs. R comes closest to my own. And with
respect
to renewing the S license, the driving force is maintaining web-based
applications that would otherwise have to be converted to R. Having already
converted some simpler ones, I have a reasonable appreciation for what is
involved. The task is sufficiently onerous that I dread having to convert
the more involved applications. But pressure to switch to R comes from
above, due to both pricing/licensing concerns, and disappointment with the
rate of development of StatServer. I'm one of only a few left that are
allowed to renew S licenses. New staff are required to choose a cheaper
route, with R encouraged. And the licenses of recent users of S were
discontinued this year, so I suspect active licenses may be restricted to
historical application developers. I expect that a viable alternative to
StatServer will be the end of S at our site. I can't help feeling a bit
sorry about that, S made such a positive difference for so many years (I
came to it from GLIM, can you imagine my relief?).
> Mark Fowler
Population Ecology Division
> Bedford Inst of Oceanography
> Dept Fisheries & Oceans
> Dartmouth NS Canada
B2Y 4A2
Tel. (902) 426-3529
Fax (902) 426-9710
> fowlerm@mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
>
-----Original Message-----
From: kwright@eskimo.com [mailto:kwright@eskimo.com]
Sent: July 12, 2005 1:39 PM
To: Rolf Turner
Cc: tzamouranisy@louisdreyfus.com; s-news@lists.biostat.wustl.edu
Subject: Re: [S] Concerns about SPLUS version 7
Well, Rolf, I think you need to try harder to fathom. :-) This debate is
not new, but here are some of my current reasons to use S-Plus, both
idealogical and practical. (I do also use R).
1. Competition can be good.
2. S-plus has tools for connectivity to other software. For example,
opening Excel in S-Plus and calling S-Plus functions from Excel. Neither
feature is as easy in R.
3. S-Plus is part of StatServer, which is a nice system for enterprise-wide
statistical analyses and reports. Doing the same in R requires expertise in
some hodgepodge collection of things like SOAP, PERL, etc.
4. Some organizations will only use software that can be purchased.
5. When I send email to R-devel, I cross my fingers that (a) Someone will
please answer and (b) I won't have my question (or myself) critiqued.
Insightful support is friendlier and always answers (admittedly, not always
with a solution).
6. I have filed fewer bug reports about S-Plus than I have about R.
7. S-Plus has some libraries that are not available in R. For example, the
robust library is nice and I think it is better than the robust statistical
methods in R.
8. Insightful is a channel for turning a few million dollars of research
grants into software that benefits us all.
Best,
Kevin Wright. S-Plus user 1994-2005. R User 2001-2005.
> I cannot for the life of me fathom why ***anyone*** would use SPLUS
> anymore. No one that I know does so. All use R. The only problem
> that ever arises is of the nature of ``Whoops! I have this data set
> stored as an SPLUS object, and I can't get at it. And none of my
> mates can help me out because none of them has access to SPLUS
> either.''
>
> This problem is decaying exponentially however.
>
> cheers,
>
> Rolf Turner
> rolf@math.unb.ca
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This message was distributed by s-news@lists.biostat.wustl.edu. To
unsubscribe send e-mail to s-news-request@lists.biostat.wustl.edu with the
BODY of the message: unsubscribe s-news
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This message was distributed by s-news@lists.biostat.wustl.edu. To
unsubscribe send e-mail to s-news-request@lists.biostat.wustl.edu with
the BODY of the message: unsubscribe s-news
|