R Graphics (Chapman &Hall/CRC The R Series)
by Paul Murrell
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Book Summary Information
Author: Paul MurrellEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-07-29
ISBN: 158488486X
Number of pages: 328
Publisher: Chapman and Hall/CRC
Accessories:
- Using R for Introductory Statistics
- A Handbook of Statistical Analyses Using R
- Linear Models with R (Chapman & Hall/CRC Texts in Statistical Science)
Book Reviews of R Graphics (Chapman &Hall/CRC The R Series)
Book Review: Good, not great
Summary: 3 Stars
R is a free software system that runs under Windows, Linux, and the Mac OS. R comprises a programming language, considerable support for statistical computing, and a set of powerful graphics functions. Murrell's book is about graphics.
Graphics in R is done using various packages. One is "graphics", and its description occupies the first half of Murrell's book. But these days "graphics" is looking a little long in the tooth, and contains a number of infelicities that can't be changed because of all the old legacy code out there. Murrell himself wrote "grid" to fix this problem; "grid" is more general and better organized, but its functions are a toolkit for creating graphics; he's only built the tools, not assembled all the elements into simple and easy-to-use high-level plotting functions that "graphics" has. "Grid" occupies the second half of this book. Sandwiched in the middle is a chapter about "Lattice" (by Deepayan Sarkar); Murrell's chapter provides a brief overview, in part because lattice is built on grid, but lattice is better described by the online documentation, Sarkar's own book, and the books by William Cleveland, which introduced the whole idea of conditioned plotting of multivariate data. There's also an helpful (but brief) appendix describing how to get "graphics" and "grid" to work together, and an introduction to programming in R, which is too brief to be of much use of novices, and not detailed enough to help more advanced users.
What's good: Although R comes with on-line documentation, the style of documentation for R is to describe the inputs and outputs of individual functions, but not provide much in the way of a conceptual overview. Murrell provides such an overview. Especially useful are a set of diagrams showing the various coordinate systems, lists of the line types and plotting symbols, and tables of the graphics state parameters. You could probably puzzle this out for yourself with just the built-in documentation, but Murrell's book will save you time and headaches. Also, his website has all the code that produced the book's figures, which can be quite instructive.
What's bad: The description of the "graphics" package is incomplete, and the book's index is just terrible, which makes it hard to find things. Just as an example, if you want to see what the "mai" graphics parameter does, you should be able find it in the index under either "mai" or "par", a function which sets such parameters. There is a function index, but the functions are listed by package, not in a single, alphebetical list. If you know enough to find "par" under the graphics package in the index, then you get referred to a 30-page block of text. You won't find "mai" in the index at all. Nearly useless.
Overall: R has a very powerful programmable graphics system. This book will help you use it. This book could be more complete, and begs for a decent index. A good example of a well-written and thorough book about a computer language is Guy Steele's Common Lisp; the R community hasn't gotten quite to that level yet.
Summary of R Graphics (Chapman &Hall/CRC The R Series)
R is revolutionizing the world of statistical computing. Powerful, flexible, and best of all free, R is now the program of choice for tens of thousands of statisticians.Destined to become an instant classic, R Graphics presents the first complete, authoritative exposition on the R graphical system. Paul Murrell, widely known as the leading expert on R graphics, has developed an in-depth resource that takes nothing for granted and helps both neophyte and seasoned users master the intricacies of R graphics. After an introductory overview of R graphics facilities, the presentation first focuses on the traditional graphics system, showing how to work the traditional functions, describing functions that are available to produce complete plots, and how to customize the details of plots.
The second part of the book describes the grid graphics system - a system unique to R and much more powerful than the traditional system. The author, who was integral in the development of the grid system, shows, starting from a blank page, how it can be used to produce graphical scenes. He also describes how to develop new graphical functions that are easy for others to use and build on. Appendices contain a brief introduction to the R system in general and discuss how the traditional and grid graphics systems can be combined.
Much of the information presented in this book cannot be found anywhere else. Well ahead of the curve, particularly regarding the grid system, R Graphics will have a major impact on the future direction of statistical graphics development.
The author maintains a website with more information.
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