Using R — Easier Error Handling with try()

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Using R

In a previous post we looked at error handling in R with the tryCatch() function and how this could be used to write Java style try-catch-finally blocks. This time we’ll look at what can be done with the try() function and how we can easily process warning and error messages to take appropriate action when something goes wrong.   read more …

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Using R — Basic error Handing with tryCatch()

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Using R

The R language definition section on Exception Handling describes a very few basics about exceptions in R but is of little use to anyone trying to write robust code that can recover gracefully in the face of errors. In fact, if you do a little searching you will find that quite a few people have read through the ?tryCatch documentation but come away just as confused as when they started. In this post we’ll try to clarify a few things and describe how R’s error handling functions can be used to write code that functions similarly to Java’s try-catch-finally construct.   read more …

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Using R — Standalone Scripts & Error Messages

This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series Using R

Open-source R is an amazing tool for statistical analysis and data visualization. Serious R gurus have found ways to do just about anything entirely within the R environment. Nevertheless, there are many of us who wish to plug R into larger, multi-language frameworks where business logic will be handled by another language and R will be primarily responsible for analysis.  This can be an excellent division of labour but requires that you first get a handle on R’s warnings and errors and how they are passed upstream.   read more …

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Data Visualization Meme in the New York Times

Data visualization is not a new topic any more. Edward Tufte launched the field onto the public stage in 1983 with the self-published book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. This was followed with Envisioning Information in 1990 and several others. The influence of these books and and the acceptance of data visualization as an important focus in our data-intense existence was highlighted further when president Obama appointed Tufte to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Recovery Independent Advisory Panel “to provide transparency in the use of Recovery-related funds.” The continued importance of data visualization is evident in several recent articles in the New York Times this week.   read more …

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WordPress for Collaborative Editing

This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Using WordPress

Working with others to create a document can be a trying affair. Authors on different computers have to deal with minor differences between Microsoft Word for PC vs. Mac or between different versions of MS Word. What do you do when a co-author can’t read a .docx file? (You can’t seriously want to use Open Office?!!) And which version of the file that has been emailed back and forth is current?

Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone working on a document were “on the same page” using exactly the same software? This post describes how to set up WordPress as a private, collaborative site for editing documents like proposals and paper drafts.

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