r: Might as well start at the beginning

I know enough about statistics to know that r is a good name for a statistics software package, but I also know it’s hell on searching for an application.

r is the GNU statistical software and graphics package, which stands as r-base-core in Debian, but is tricky to find in Arch/AUR. No matter, I had no trouble getting it to compile in Arch once I had installed perl-exutils-f77.

Of course, now that it’s been built, along comes the perennial question … what do I do with it? 😕 Like I said, I know a little about statistics. It’s not enough to put me at any advantage over r though.

And so again I find myself years behind the curve, much as I was with octave, mathomatic or even gnuplot. I swear it’s not for a lack of ability, just a lack of necessity that keeps me from having used or seen these things.

I showed r in a demo(), and there are others available. r can do some amazing graphs and diagrams, as the screenshots page attests.

Unfortunately, I find myself lacking the need for a statistical analysis package, even if it did take me quite a while to find it. 😐