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Re: Summary: Splus vs. R & Linux vs. Windows

To: Michael Prager <Mike.Prager@noaa.gov>
Subject: Re: Summary: Splus vs. R & Linux vs. Windows
From: Frank E Harrell Jr <fharrell@virginia.edu>
Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2002 14:14:44 -0500
Cc: s-news@lists.biostat.wustl.edu, Mike.Prager@noaa.gov
In-reply-to: <5.1.0.14.0.20020223115454.00aa7c50@nsmail.ccfhrb.noaa.gov>
Organization: University of Virginia
References: <Pine.GSO.4.10.10202221702490.12671-100000@phz-6> <5.1.0.14.0.20020222164505.00aed918@nsmail.ccfhrb.noaa.gov> <Pine.GSO.4.10.10202221702490.12671-100000@phz-6> <5.1.0.14.0.20020223115454.00aa7c50@nsmail.ccfhrb.noaa.gov>
Mike,

I didn't mean to imply that implementers of UNIX tools on Windows have done a 
poor job.  If fact they work better than I thought they would.  But it is so 
nice  to find that almost all the tools I need come pre-installed with Linux, 
run faster, and are easier to update.  And yes, I really appreciate that S-Plus 
runs under Linux as well as Windows.  -Frank

On Sat, 23 Feb 2002 12:11:26 -0500
Michael Prager <Mike.Prager@noaa.gov> wrote:

> At 07:39 AM 02/23/2002 -0500, Frank Harrell wrote:
> 
> >... when I ditched Windows 2000 and went to the real thing (Linux) I found 
> >out what I had been missing trying to get things working in Windows 
> >(especially easy of installation of Emacs, LaTeX, etc., speed, true 
> >operating system with symbolic links, etc.).  -Frank Harrell
> 
> I feel rather ungracious nitpicking the generous Frank Harrell, and I am no 
> Windows apologist, but to me what the above suggests is mainly that those 
> who have developed tools under *ix have done a poor job of porting them to 
> Windows.  If *ix is taken as the "true" operating system, all others will 
> forever fail to meet the standard.  It is perhaps less romantic to hold 
> that each system has its faults and merits and that an operating system's 
> worth cannot be judged by how well it runs software designed for another 
> system and ported in someone's spare time.
> 
> I prefer operating systems that don't require of the user a working 
> knowledge of octal.
> 
> By the way, none of my DOS batch files run worth a d**n on Linux -- 
> especially the ones that try to access the command line before the shell 
> has transformed it.
> 
> Anyway, aren't we lucky that S language implementations are available for a 
> choice of environments?
> 
> MHP
> 
> (None of the above is to be construed as NOAA opinion or endorsement.)
> 
> 
> -- 
> Michael Prager, Ph.D.                <Mike.Prager@noaa.gov>
> NOAA Beaufort Laboratory
> Beaufort, North Carolina  28516
> http://shrimp.ccfhrb.noaa.gov/~mprager/
> ***
> 


-- 
Frank E Harrell Jr              Prof. of Biostatistics & Statistics
Div. of Biostatistics & Epidem. Dept. of Health Evaluation Sciences
U. Virginia School of Medicine  http://hesweb1.med.virginia.edu/biostat

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