Thank you, an interesting interview and I have used the original pdf version more than once though I tend to use it to think about how convert R to SAS rather than SAS to R.
--- On Fri, 9/26/08, Ajay ohri <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Ajay ohri <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [R] A Book for SAS, SPSS and R students > To: "sas-l" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "r-help@r-project.org" > <r-help@r-project.org>, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Received: Friday, September 26, 2008, 10:14 PM > Hi List, > > I had the pleasure of taking Dr Bob Muenchen's > interview for his upcoming > book R For SAS and SPSS users. He has spent 27 years in > this field while I > have spent almost that much on earth. > > So this is more like a fan blog interview. I thought it > would be of use to > people curious about R, or even SAS , or SPSS if they have > not worked on > either of these packages before. > > Having fought my own battles for cheaper software, or > trying to learn R by > kicking the GUI habit,I found this quite useful > > It would of extra interest to people in developing world as > they effectively > pay 7 times as much due to economic purchasing parity for > softwares, even > though statistical decision making is the area they need > the most to > optimize their resources and planning.R is free. > > So here goes, and thanks for your time, and apologies if > you think this is > spam. Please send the comments (especially the SAS-L list ) > individually on > my email. > > Ajay > > http://www.decisionstats.com/?p=599 > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Note-*Dr Robert Muenchen (pronounced Min'-chen) is the > author of the famous > R for SAS and SPSS users, and his forthcoming book is an > extensive tutorial > on anyone wanting to learn either SAS, SPSS ,or R or even > to migrate from > one platform to another.In an exclusive interview to > www.decisionstats.comBob agreed to answer some questions on > the book , > and on students planning > to enter science careers.* > > > > *What made you write the R For SAS and SPSS users?* > > *The book- > <http://www.amazon.com/SAS-SPSS-Users-Statistics-Computing/dp/0387094172/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217456813&sr=8-1> > * > > A few years ago, all my colleagues seemed to be suddenly > talking about R. > Had I tried it? What did I think? Wasn't it amazing? I > searched around for a > review and found an article by Patrick Burns, "R > Relative to Statistics > Packages" which is posted on the UCLA site (* > http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/technicalreports/*). That > article pointed out > the many advantages of R and in it Burns claimed that > knowing a standard > statistics package interfered with learning R. That article > really got my > interest up. Pat's article was a rejoinder to > "Strategically using General > Purpose Statistics Packages: A Look at Stata, SAS and > SPSS" by Michael > Mitchell, then the manager of statistical consulting at > UCLA (it's at that > same site). In it he said little about R, other than he had > "enormous > difficulties" learning it that he had especially found > the documentation > lacking. > > I dove in and started learning R. It was incredibly hard > work, most of which > was caused by my expectations of how I thought it ought to > work. I did have > a lot to "unlearn" but once I figured a certain > step out, I could see that > explaining it to another SAS or SPSS user would be > relatively easy. I > started keeping notes on these differences for myself > initially. I finally > posted them on the Internet as the first version of *R for > SAS and SPSS > Users*. It was only 80 pages and much of its explanation > was in the form of > extensive R program comments. I provided 27 example > programs, each done in > SAS, SPSS and R. A person could see how they differed, > topic by topic. When > a person ran the sections of the R programs and read all > the comments, he or > she would learn how R worked. > > A web page counter on that document showed it was getting > about 10,000 hits > a month. That translates into about 300 users, paging back > and forth through > the document. An editor from Springer emailed me to ask if > I could make it a > book. I said it might be 150 pages when I wrote out the > prose to replace all > the comments. It turned out to be 480 pages! > > > http://www.amazon.com/SAS-SPSS-Users-Statistics-Computing/dp/0387094172/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217456813&sr=8-1 > > You can read the rest of the interview here - > www.decisionstats.com (which > is a non commercial non advertising website ) > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > 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. __________________________________________________________________ [[elided Yahoo spam]] ______________________________________________ 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.
