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Abstract:
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Despite major advances in statistics and statistical graphics, most practicing scientists and engineers continue to use primitive and often unreliable software for data analysis and visualization. MS Excel® is probably the most widely known and used example. We believe R can change this situation. It is free, trivial to install, and state-of-the-art. Unfortunately, it is also too difficult for most practitioners to learn. However, in research and industry, there is a great need for repetitive analyses performed as a routine part of normal work processes. For such circumscribed tasks, it is relatively easy to build GUIs in R or other software (including Excel) that access R's superior capabilities and incorporate them into structured analyses. We shall discuss our strategies and experience and those of others, focusing primarily on Windows® OSs.
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