"Risadynamiclanguageforstatisticalcomputingthatcombineslazy functional features and object-oriented programming. This rather unlikely lin- guistic cocktail would probably never have been prepared by computer scientists, yet the language has become surprisingly popular. With millions of lines of R code available in repositories, we have an opportunity to evaluate the fundamental choices underlying the R language design. Using a combination of static and dynamic program analysis we assess the success of different language features."

There's something a bit odd about evaluating a language designed for statistical computing on a set of benchmarks which do not include statistical problems...

"I don't know exactly what to do, but when I look around at yet another room packed with white guys in black t-shirts, I know we're screwing up."

"Math, as it happens, isn’t hard. Shopping is much more complicated."

"We present a new computing environment for authoring mixed natural and computer language documents. In this environment a single hierarchically-organized plain text source file may contain a variety of elements such as code in arbitrary programming languages, raw data, links to external resources, project management data, working notes, and text for publication. Code fragments may be executed in situ with graphical, numerical and textual output captured or linked in the file. Export to LATEX, HTML, LATEX beamer, DocBook and other formats permits working reports, presentations and manuscripts for publication to be generated from the file. In addition, functioning pure code files can be automatically extracted from the file. This environment is implemented as an extension to the Emacs text editor and provides a rich set of features for authoring both prose and code, as well as sophisticated project management capabilities."

But conserved components _are_ one way of allowing variation and innovation. (Look at a homeobox.)

Review: http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/algae-2011-12.html#matloff

"Procedural thinking may be the 21st century's most essential yet endangered way of thinking. Of course the best way of teaching it to your kids is to live in the 1980s and buy them a BBC Micro, but that is getting harder and harder in these days of touchscreens and it being 30 years too late. Now children's games designers Exploit (tm) have introduced a new range of children's games for exactly the purpose of teaching procedural thinking skills to your kids. Each game in the new range is designed to be played by children and adults together and involves rules of age appropriate complexity. Standard play of these games should allow the player with the most foresight and self-control to win most of the time (ie the adult). Within each ruleset, however, is hidden a loop-hole which, if discovered, should allow the unscrupulous player crushing victory after crushing victory. The thrill of discovering and using these loop-holes will train your kids in the vital skills of system analysis, procedural thinking and game theory. Parents can either play in "carrot" mode, feigning ignorance of each game's loop-hole and thus allowing their children the joy of discovery; or they can play in "stick" mode, exploiting the loop-hole for their own ends and using their child's inevitable defeat, amidst cries of "it's not fair!" as encouragement for them to engage their own ludic counter-measures."

The R Graph Gallery is an under-utilized resource, and sending a little money Romain's way is not a bad thing.

Extracting data from your

I hesitate about the teaching tag, this seems quite clunky --- but perhaps it's not that bad when you try it.

"... describes the emergence of the technical specialists—computer programmers, systems analysts, and data processing managers—who helped transform the electronic digital computer from a scientific curiosity into the most powerful and ubiquitous technology of the modern era. They did so not as inventors from the traditional mold, but as the developers of the "software" (broadly defined to include programs, procedures, and practices) that integrated the novel technology of electronic computing into existing social, political, and technological networks. As mediators between the technical system (the computer) and its social environment (existing structures and practices), these specialists became a focus for opposition to the use of new information technologies. To many of their contemporaries, it seemed the "computer boys" were taking over, not just in the corporate setting, but also in government, politics, and society in general."

C++ library with R interface, supposedly good for Really Big data. Consider for 350?

"There are many algorithm texts that provide lots of well-polished code and proofs of correctness. This book is not one of them. Instead, this book presents insights, notations, and analogies to help the novice describe and think about algorithms like an expert. By looking at both the big picture and easy step-by-step methods for developing algorithms, the author helps students avoid the common pitfalls. He stresses paradigms such as loop invariants and recursion to unify a huge range of algorithms into a few meta-algorithms. Part of the goal is to teach the students to think abstractly. Without getting bogged with formal proofs, the book fosters a deeper understanding of how and why each algorithm works. "

Huh.

About 1/2 R as a programming language, and 1/2 shot explanations of how to do particular analyses in R. I've now used it with decent success as a supplemental textbook.

What a deeply unfortunate name.

Reasonable though not mandatory.

"Sweave is a tool that allows to embed the R code for complete data analyses in latex documents. The purpose is to create dynamic reports, which can be updated automatically if data or analysis change. Instead of inserting a prefabricated graph or table into the report, the master document contains the R code necessary to obtain it. When run through R, all data analysis output (tables, graphs, etc.) is created on the fly and inserted into a final latex document. The report can be automatically updated if data or analysis change, which allows for truly reproducible research."

I guess I need to learn at least a minimum of this...

You may very well think to yourself that by the time something like this is needed, continuing the project in Perl may not be the best idea. You may very well think that.

Oh, God, do I really have to read this?

"This paper describes the FSA Utilities toolbox: a collection of utilities to manipulate finite-state automata and finite-state transducers. Manipulations include determinization (both for finite-state acceptors and finite-state transducers), minimization, composition, complementation, intersection, Kleene closure, etc. Furthermore, various visualization tools are available to browse finite-state automata. The toolbox is implemented in SICStus Prolog." Where's something comparable in a sane language? (N.B., must handle transducers.)

Very reasonable set of slides from Thomas Lumley. I wouldn't plan on actually using them in a course --- they don't quite fit my style --- but I would put them on a list of pointers for students.

"much of the discussion misses the fact that large assemblages of code, and so the net, that are supposed to run indefinitely, are in some ways like biological systems than like the simple, exactly describable engineered systems of the past. ... Still, every large long-running software system I have known resists attack and improves through incremental replacement of parts, with lots of trial and error, not by wholesale redesign. The internet "fixers" goal is no more realistic than anyone's goal to avoid disease by redesigning their genome and rebooting their body." Application to transhumanism left as an exercise.

"This package provides a bidirectional interface for calling R from Perl and Perl from R."

I can't remember who directed me to this, but I need to get work done and I HATE YOU.

"If you are using R and you think you’re in hell, this is a map for you. "

"Most professional programmers learn about [the role of memory] entirely through actual experience of the problems it causes..."

Worth stealing^H^H^H borrowing from?

Draft book by Ben Klemens on statistical programming in C. Now out, 2008.

The "Many of my days go like this:" part resonates.

Classic. "The pig go. Go is to the fountain. The pig put foot. Grunt. Foot in what? ketchup. The dove fly. Fly is in sky. The dove drop something. The something on the pig. The pig disgusting. The pig rattle. Rattle with dove. The dove angry..."

Free full-texts from Turing and Shannon onward.

"Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions."

Programming for artists (!?!) - looks very cool, but also hard to justify in my book budget. ---Apparently superseded by the Processing programming language/environment.

Bought this and have started working my way through it. It's good, but it's a bit shocking to spend 85 pounds and get something spiral-bound.