If you're an SPSS/SAS user and been meaning to take the plunge into #Rstats, here's a list of resources that helped me make the switch...
-
-
And to be honest including visually impaired people is really important. MATLAB on the other hand is 100% very much not able to be screen read IIRC, and the same goes for SPSS. Sad really that those are the norm in my field.
-
Interesting, I hadn’t considered this before!
-
No idea how accessible R Studio is, but I am sure it's more than Matlab (which is not accessible by screen readers IIRC).
-
My experiences are from around this time: http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/blindmath_nfbnet.org/2014-May/005682.html … — so yeah, Matlab was (and is?) not accessible.
-
That’s abysmal, what are Mathworks playing at by not having proper screen reader support? That’s basic surely?
-
AFAIK Matlab doesn't even have a BNF. So I guess they don't give a shit generally.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Yeah, I’d say the same of Python and Matlab tbh (Matlab having the added problem of being ludicrously expensive). When I mention accessibility there I’m thinking more of the (perceived?) barrier to entry. Annecdotal but I know a lot of engineering postgrads who won’t touch a CLI.
-
Mostly because it’s “programming” to them and programming is a scary thing they did one module on in first year and avoid like the plague.
-
Here’s an interesting perspective on teaching R to undergradshttps://datahowler.wordpress.com/2016/09/10/no-more-excuses-r-is-better-than-spss-for-psychology-undergrads-and-students-agree/ …
-
Yeah, I think it’s an issue of how it’s taught at early levels. If you don’t already have some programming background it can seem a little scary but is very intuitive once you get used to it.
-
I think R's (and pandas') split-apply-combine paradigm might be hard for even very experienced programmers TBH. Took me a few hours of playing to 100% get it. Felt much like the kind of paradigm shifts we had to get used to in UG like when they taught us Prolog.

-
Tbh the biggest issue I’ve had is figuring out R’s type system. Matlab is easy, basically everything is a type of matrix, even strings are 1 x n matrices of characters.
-
That's... not necessarily a good thing.

-
It’s great if you’re a mathematician. I understand matrices, I fear well constructed languages

- 1 more reply
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.