One of R's strengths is its ability to manipulate data and then visualise the output. Doing this via the command line is slow and cumbersome. Do you plan to output a chart, save it, then open it with another application?
RStudio excels in not just being an IDE, but also a visual data representation tool. Write the R code, view the chart in the same application (Rstudio), tweak until happy, then save. It's a much smoother iterative process.
I'd be prepared to believe that perhaps a command line champion could manage libraries and develop code direct from the R interpreter, as well as I can using RStudio. However, I can't see how one could possibly produce the same quality data visualisation working directly at the command prompt.
I don't know about Visual Studio, I don't use it, but your criticism of RStudio is wide of the mark.
I'm talking about RStudio being a much better tool for data visualisation.
If people wish to stick with the command line, I won't dissuade them. I just personally find there are better tools for producing data visualisations with R.
ah, but the path less trodden has its own rewards. The purity of the command line, the sparsity of it all it, unpolluted by decadent convenience-cruft, is satisfying in itself. Approach the heart of the machine!
That's not where RStudio outperforms console R. You don't have to save a chart and open it with some other program, it opens a dedicated window for plots that you can put anywhere you want. Functionally it's the same thing.
RStudio shines when it comes to viewing data, global variables, and command history. Personally, I found the editor itself to be far too restrictive so I switched back to emacs and the command line. Also, as far as I know there's no way to get a true dark theme in RStudio where the entire application is dark, not just the code.
Oh please. I do that 20x a day without R Studio. Saving a chart is as simple as png(...). You are clearly too mouse-bound. I reject your comment out of hand.
Funny, I always thought personal computing not being about strict protocol but more like freestyle guitar playing where individual styles are not as important as the results of the techniques.
actually, while the idiom seems initially appealing that feestyle guitar would more closely resemble using the (superficially analogue) mouse than using a (clearly digital) keyboard, actually the opposite is true. That is because the mouse is limited to a small selection of prescribed onscreen choices, whereas the keyboard, while still being a digital medium (unlike the freestyle guitar - on that I agree), has a much, much wider palette of expressiveness thanks to the inevitably orders-of-magnitude greater combination of command combinations of which it is capable.
Aye, but using a well-designed program allows you to use both the keyboard and mouse simultaneously. Especially something like visual studio, you can create keybindings for damn near everything, set up macros, etc, plus still use the mouse for quick and dirty stuff. So a visual interface may be more like a two-necked guitar, where some think it's a gimmick, and there's admittedly a bit of lost flexibility from both sides, but you gain more overall.
Or go cyborg like me! I have a 12 button Razer mouse on the right, and a Razer Nostromo (formerly Belkin) on the left with plenty of macros, and analog in the mix customized for each program.
Why save it at all when in RStudio you can skip that step. Doesn't have anything to do with a mouse either because you still write and execute all the code with the keyboard. This all seems very out of left field.
but you don't have to save it to view it under the command line.
> plot(rnorm(100))
is not going to give you anything different under R-Studio, than command-line R, other than redirecting the identical output into a convenience window in its IDE. Sure R-Studio will save a history for you and throw a few conveniences at you but, command-line >plot(rnorm(100)) will popup a window on all OS versions of R and you'll be able to visualize all day long. Including multiple open charts. With selectable focus for further manipulation. R-Studio (MS-VS-RStudio) is just a very thin wrapper on something which is 100% there already. However, in return for nominal initial friendliness, it has the downside of sleepwalking you into a workflow which, if you don't understand what's going on underneath, will hold back your R learning curve.
Now IDEs are useful, if you understand the tradeoffs. They're a higher-level wrapper on stuff, with all the pluses and minuses that that entails. Higher-level = lower learning curve, greater immediate productivity, vs lower-level = higher learning curve, lower immediate productivity but greater long term power.
Comments
Actually, no it's not.
One of R's strengths is its ability to manipulate data and then visualise the output. Doing this via the command line is slow and cumbersome. Do you plan to output a chart, save it, then open it with another application?
RStudio excels in not just being an IDE, but also a visual data representation tool. Write the R code, view the chart in the same application (Rstudio), tweak until happy, then save. It's a much smoother iterative process.
I'd be prepared to believe that perhaps a command line champion could manage libraries and develop code direct from the R interpreter, as well as I can using RStudio. However, I can't see how one could possibly produce the same quality data visualisation working directly at the command prompt.
I don't know about Visual Studio, I don't use it, but your criticism of RStudio is wide of the mark.
What are you talking about? The text-based R interpreter has exactly the same graphical capabilities as R Studio.
I'm talking about RStudio being a much better tool for data visualisation.
If people wish to stick with the command line, I won't dissuade them. I just personally find there are better tools for producing data visualisations with R.
ah, but the path less trodden has its own rewards. The purity of the command line, the sparsity of it all it, unpolluted by decadent convenience-cruft, is satisfying in itself. Approach the heart of the machine!
That's not where RStudio outperforms console R. You don't have to save a chart and open it with some other program, it opens a dedicated window for plots that you can put anywhere you want. Functionally it's the same thing.
RStudio shines when it comes to viewing data, global variables, and command history. Personally, I found the editor itself to be far too restrictive so I switched back to emacs and the command line. Also, as far as I know there's no way to get a true dark theme in RStudio where the entire application is dark, not just the code.
Oh please. I do that 20x a day without R Studio. Saving a chart is as simple as png(...). You are clearly too mouse-bound. I reject your comment out of hand.
"You are clearly too mouse-bound."
Funny, I always thought personal computing not being about strict protocol but more like freestyle guitar playing where individual styles are not as important as the results of the techniques.
actually, while the idiom seems initially appealing that feestyle guitar would more closely resemble using the (superficially analogue) mouse than using a (clearly digital) keyboard, actually the opposite is true. That is because the mouse is limited to a small selection of prescribed onscreen choices, whereas the keyboard, while still being a digital medium (unlike the freestyle guitar - on that I agree), has a much, much wider palette of expressiveness thanks to the inevitably orders-of-magnitude greater combination of command combinations of which it is capable.
Aye, but using a well-designed program allows you to use both the keyboard and mouse simultaneously. Especially something like visual studio, you can create keybindings for damn near everything, set up macros, etc, plus still use the mouse for quick and dirty stuff. So a visual interface may be more like a two-necked guitar, where some think it's a gimmick, and there's admittedly a bit of lost flexibility from both sides, but you gain more overall.
Or go cyborg like me! I have a 12 button Razer mouse on the right, and a Razer Nostromo (formerly Belkin) on the left with plenty of macros, and analog in the mix customized for each program.
Why save it at all when in RStudio you can skip that step. Doesn't have anything to do with a mouse either because you still write and execute all the code with the keyboard. This all seems very out of left field.
but you don't have to save it to view it under the command line.
is not going to give you anything different under R-Studio, than command-line R, other than redirecting the identical output into a convenience window in its IDE. Sure R-Studio will save a history for you and throw a few conveniences at you but, command-line >plot(rnorm(100)) will popup a window on all OS versions of R and you'll be able to visualize all day long. Including multiple open charts. With selectable focus for further manipulation. R-Studio (MS-VS-RStudio) is just a very thin wrapper on something which is 100% there already. However, in return for nominal initial friendliness, it has the downside of sleepwalking you into a workflow which, if you don't understand what's going on underneath, will hold back your R learning curve.Now IDEs are useful, if you understand the tradeoffs. They're a higher-level wrapper on stuff, with all the pluses and minuses that that entails. Higher-level = lower learning curve, greater immediate productivity, vs lower-level = higher learning curve, lower immediate productivity but greater long term power.