On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 3:23 PM, Douglas Bates <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 1:53 PM, Kathy Gerber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Earlier today I sent a question to Frank Harrell as an R developer with > > whom I am most familiar. He suggested also that I put my questions to > > the list for additional responses. Next month I'll be giving a talk on > > R as an example of high quality open source software. I think there is > > much to learn from R as a high quality extensible product that (at least > > as far as I can tell) has never been "spun" or "hyped" like so many open > > source fads. > > > The question that intrigues me the most is why is R as an open source > > project is so incredibly successful and other projects, say for example, > > Octave don't enjoy that level of success? > > First and foremost there is the incredible generosity of Ross Ihaka > and Robert Gentleman who, after spending an enormous amount of time > and effort in development of the initial implementation, did not > demand exclusive ownership of their work but allowed others to make > changes. I believe Martin Maechler was the first non-Auckland person > to get write access to the source code repository and I'm sure that > the good experience of working at a distance with Martin persuaded R & > R to open it up to others. Martin is polite, considerate, meticulous > and precise (he is a German-speaking Swiss so meticulous and precise > kind of comes with the territory) and you couldn't ask for a first
I meant to write "for a better first experience" > experience in sharing something that is very valuable to you with > someone whom you may never have met in person. > > Not everyone has been that pleasant to work with. One of the first > things that I did when I joined R-core was to blow up at Kurt and > Fritz about something - on Christmas Eve! I surprised the group > didn't boot me out after that start. > > When a project is gaining momentum the personalities of the initial > developers have a big influence on its success. The R project has > been fortunate in that regard. > > > > > I have some ideas of course, but I would really like to know your > > thoughts when you look at R from such a vantage point. > > > Thanks. > > Kathy Gerber > > University of Virginia > > ITC - Research Computing Support > > > > ______________________________________________ > > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > > PLEASE do read the posting guide > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > > ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
