[SciPy-User] R vs Python for simple interactive data analysis

[Bruce Southey]

On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 5:06 PM, Wes McKinney <wesmckinn at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 5:03 PM, Jason Grout
> <jason-sage at creativetrax.com> wrote:
>> On 8/27/11 1:19 PM, Christopher Jordan-Squire wrote:
>>> This comparison might be useful to some people, so I stuck it up on a
>>> github repo. My overall impression is that R is much stronger for
>>> interactive data analysis. Click on the link for more details why,
>>> which are summarized in the README file.
>>
>>  From the README:
>>
>> "In fact, using Python without the IPython qtconsole is practically
>> impossible for this sort of cut and paste, interactive analysis.
>> The shell IPython doesn't allow it because it automatically adds
>> whitespace on multiline bits of code, breaking pre-formatted code's
>> alignment. Cutting and pasting works for the standard python shell,
>> but then you lose all the advantages of IPython."
>>
>>
>>
>> You might use %cpaste in the ipython normal shell to paste without it
>> automatically inserting spaces:
>>
>> In [5]: %cpaste
>> Pasting code; enter '--' alone on the line to stop.
>> :if 1>0:
>> :    print 'hi'
>> :--
>> hi
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Jason
>>
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>>
>
> This strikes me as a textbook example of why we need an integrated
> formula framework in statsmodels. I'll make a pass through when I get
> a chance and see if there are some places where pandas would really
> help out.

We used to have a formula class is scipy.stats and I do not follow
nipy (http://nipy.sourceforge.net/nipy/stable/index.html) as it also
had this (extremely flexible but very hard to comprehend). It was what
I had argued was needed ages ago for statsmodel. But it needs a
community effort because the syntax required serves multiple
communities with different annotations and needs. That is also seen
from the different approaches taken by the stats packages from S/R,
SAS, Genstat (and those are just are ones I have used).



Bruce