R

R is a software system for statistical analysis and plotting. It is free (see definition on Wikipedia) and available for Unix/Linux, Wintel PCs and Macintosh OS. There are a large number of non-free books explaining how to use R.

R is increasingly becoming the choice of serious statisticians especially in academia. R is preferred because it is written and maintained by statisticians who care about accuracy and transparency. Another reason is that R produces very high quality graphics appropriate for publication. Several add-in packages allow for the creation of very sophisticated and aesthetically pleasing graphs.

Users interact with R by typing commands. This may seem unfamiliar and unfriendly to someone unfamiliar with R, but it allows for analysis procedures to be clearly documented and repeated on many data sets.

DOE in R

The standard R installation does not include high level functions for Design of Experiments. The current state of DOE tools in R is described in this task view. A set of R packages for DOE is under active development by Prof. Dr. Ulrike Gromping. <www.r-project.org>

  • An Introduction to R, a free on-line Book
    [A bound, printed copy at Amazon]
  • John Maindonald's Using R for Data Analysis and Graphics, provides a tutorial introduction and an overview of powerful R commands. This reference assumes you know statistics.
  • R Basics FAQ
  • The R Manuals
  • Quick-R is a nicely designed reference site
  • The R tutorials at Clarkson University focus on basic operations that are directly applicable to ME 488.

    • Books on R

    First, consult the comprehensive list of books on the R site.

    There you will see additional information about these books that I have found useful