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I appreciate the feedback! There is definitely more that R offers than what I discuss here. In retrospect, I will be more restrained on my opinions when I have

I appreciate the feedback! There is definitely more that R offers than what I discuss here. In retrospect, I will be more restrained on my opinions when I have little experience in my pocket. That being said, it was absolutely my intention to present CLI that deviate from R's intended use. There is already plenty out there on R's intended use. What's that adage that goes something like, "if you want to get an answer on the Internet, don't pose a question..."?

iron0013 7y ago
I should also say that I didn't mean to sound so curt, and would have chosen my words more carefully if I'd known the author was here in the thread!
- dwrodri 7y ago
  No offense taken! I'm relatively new to technical writing and the discussion from all of these comments (yours included) has been really helpful for guiding how I write future posts. HN is (in my experience) a lot more cynical and straightforward than other places[1]. It's something I've learned to appreciate and also take it with a grain of salt. 1 = https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863
  - jrumbut 7y ago
    This is incredibly gracious feedback taking, a lesson in how not to be defensive. I agree with you where some here don't. I think there are often better tools for any single data cleaning task. R's strength is being second best at an enormous range of tasks (and often being first to get new techniques) and packaging that with analysis and visualization.
- AceJohnny2 7y ago
  > and would have chosen my words more carefully if I'd known the author was here in the thread Not a specific dig against you, but I find it useful to write (and say) anything with the assumption that the author I'm (hypothetically) addressing is a direct witness. It really helps with online civility :)
mespe 7y ago
I think it would be more accurate to say "deviate from R's typical use." I use Rscript all the time. I was taught to use it by one of R's developers. While not typical, it is absolutely an "intended" use case. In fact, if you would like to learn more, Software Carpentry has an entire module on using R as a CLI: https://swcarpentry.github.io/r-novice-inflammation/05-cmdline/ https://swcarpentry.github.io/r-novice-inflammation/05-cmdli...
- dwrodri 7y ago
  Bookmarked for later consumption. Thanks for the recommendation!
- yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
  This is beautiful and I only wish I'd found it sooner; thank you for sharing:)

iron0013 7y ago

I should also say that I didn't mean to sound so curt, and would have chosen my words more carefully if I'd known the author was here in the thread!

dwrodri 7y ago
No offense taken! I'm relatively new to technical writing and the discussion from all of these comments (yours included) has been really helpful for guiding how I write future posts. HN is (in my experience) a lot more cynical and straightforward than other places[1]. It's something I've learned to appreciate and also take it with a grain of salt. 1 = https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863
- jrumbut 7y ago
  This is incredibly gracious feedback taking, a lesson in how not to be defensive. I agree with you where some here don't. I think there are often better tools for any single data cleaning task. R's strength is being second best at an enormous range of tasks (and often being first to get new techniques) and packaging that with analysis and visualization.
AceJohnny2 7y ago
> and would have chosen my words more carefully if I'd known the author was here in the thread Not a specific dig against you, but I find it useful to write (and say) anything with the assumption that the author I'm (hypothetically) addressing is a direct witness. It really helps with online civility :)

mespe 7y ago

I think it would be more accurate to say "deviate from R's typical use." I use Rscript all the time. I was taught to use it by one of R's developers. While not typical, it is absolutely an "intended" use case. In fact, if you would like to learn more, Software Carpentry has an entire module on using R as a CLI: https://swcarpentry.github.io/r-novice-inflammation/05-cmdline/ https://swcarpentry.github.io/r-novice-inflammation/05-cmdli...

dwrodri 7y ago
Bookmarked for later consumption. Thanks for the recommendation!
yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
This is beautiful and I only wish I'd found it sooner; thank you for sharing:)