On 1/13/2012 2:26 PM, MacQueen, Don wrote:
It's a nice idea, but I wouldn't be optimistic about it happening:
Each of these public databases no doubt has its own more or less unique
API, and the people likely to know the API well enough to write R code to
access any particular database will be specialists in that field. They
likely won't know much if anything about other public databases. The
likelihood of a group forming to develop ** and maintain ** a single R
package to access the no-doubt huge variety of public databases strikes me
as small.
I agree. The more reasonable model is a collection of packages, each of
which can access a particular data source.
However, this looks like a great opportunity for a new CRAN Task View. The
task view would simply identify which packages connect to which public
databases. (sorry, I can't volunteer)
A CRAN Task View would be well suited for this. I have tagged these sort
of packages on crantastic with the "onlineData" tag when I happen to
notice one, but I have not made a concerted effort to find all packages.
A Task View would be even better.
http://crantastic.org/tags/onlineData
-Don
p.s.
I can mention openair as a package that has tools to access public
databases.
Tagged it.
--
Brian S. Diggs, PhD
Senior Research Associate, Department of Surgery
Oregon Health & Science University
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