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A first course in statistical programming with R. W. John Braun and Duncan J. Murdoch. 2007. 163 pp. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. USD $49.99. ISBN: 978-0-521-69424-7 Paperback.
This book fills an unusual niche in the market of R programming books. For the uninitiated, R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics (www.rproject.org). Like its predecessor S, the R environment is designed around a true computer language. R has become the lingua franca of biological computing within a short period of time (less than a decade) and now has applications in most areas of biology, especially ecology, systematics, genetics, evolution, bioinformatics, and molecular biology.
The end paper of the text states in the opening line, "This is the only introduction you'll need to start programming in R." While this seems a bit overstated, the authors did attempt to provide a useful guide into the field of statistical programming after being unable to find a suitable existing book for a course in statistical computing. The authors are cautious in emphasizing that while this book utilizes R, "it is not a manual about programming in R, it is a course in statistical programming that uses R." As such, the book might likely be useful in a variety of courses.
The book is comprised of seven chapters beginning with an introduction to the R program and interface; it then moves into introductory programming principles and then on to more advanced concepts of statistical programming. The first chapter provides a very good introduction to the basics of using R, which from years of observation seems...