Re: [tlug] GPL vs. paid version and ethics

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Attila Kinali writes:

 > Interesting. Here at the university they teach psychology students
 > statistics using R. And i doubt it's because they cannot afford a
 > license.

Could be.  However, I find that my Japanese (and Chinese) MBA students
spend a substantial fraction of their time learning how to use
statistical packages like SPSS, and R makes that *much* worse.  Among
other things, rather few R packages (and you can't get very far into
most any textbook without needing packages) have Japanese (or Chinese)
documentation.

I'm also surprised that they use R at all; something like SPSS (which
is the package of choice among my pysch/business psych/organizational
behavior colleagues) seems more appropriate.

Anyway, given how many R fans there are, I guess I'll have to take a
harder look at best practices for using it in teaching.