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When:
November 21, 2011 @ 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
2011-11-21T13:00:00-05:00
2011-11-21T14:00:00-05:00
Where:
Norm Endler Seminar Room (BSB 164)
Cost:
Free
Applied Quantitative Methods:
Using Alternative Software to Enhance Graphical Output, Documentation, and File Sharing
Speaker: Phil Chalmers, York University
Department of Psychology
Title: LaTeX, Sweave, and SVN: An introduction to writing, maintaining, and sharing structured documents.
Abstract: In principle there are two types of documentation strategies: 'What You See Is What You Get' (WYSIWYG), and 'What You See Is What You Mean' (WYSIWYM). The former strategy is adopted by commercial programs such as Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, and Word Perfect, while the latter is found in markup languages such as HTML, XML, and (La)TeX. While WYSIWYG styles are certainly more popular, a WYSIWYM driven style can offer a powerful, flexible, cross-platform, and free alternative. In this lecture we will explore several aspects of the LaTeX documentation system that make it appealing for scholarly writers, demonstrate how LaTeX can interface with R directly by using Sweave, and show how collaborating with multiple authors on a single document can be facilitated by using SubVersioN (SVN) techniques.
Speaker: Matthew Sigal, York University
Department of Psychology
Title: Make it Pretty! Graphical Post-processing using Adobe Illustrator.
Abstract: With the rise of info-graphics and the migration of statistical graphics into the public sphere (e.g,. via sites like Visualizing.org and FlowingData.com, or through the New York Times' Visualization Laboratory), it is important to prepare graphical output meant for publication in a way that clearly and appropriately expresses the relationships one wants to discuss. Graphical output in R serves its purpose and, with packages like ggplot2 and lattice, can be manipulated into being quite striking. However, this is often a timely process. During this lecture I propose an alternative strategy: that researchers can use popular vector graphics editing software, in particular Adobe Illustrator, to efficiently post-process their output in a way that can aid their statistical narrative.
