[R] Cluster GUI package worth publishing/enhancing?

Todd Gillette todd.gillette at gmail.com
Tue Feb 28 16:42:02 CET 2012


For a school course I and a partner developed a GUI in R designed to
enable exploration of data via visualization of hierarchical
clustering and correlation of cluster partitions with external
metadata. The key features were the ability to load in a distance
matrix (most GUI-based clustering programs require feature vector
input), and the ability to dynamically subset the data via the GUI
built using a user-provided meta data file. I didn't think this was
sufficient to publish a package, but it did seem like it could make
for a good foundation. I so far have not come across other software
that provides all of these features. I was hoping to get initial
feedback in terms of whether anyone thought this, with or without
certain enhancements, might be worthwhile. For a sense of what the
existing tool looks like and what it does:
http://mason.gmu.edu/~tgillett/R_Cluster_GUI/RClusterGUI.html

We intend to extend the tool to enable feature vector input,
additional forms of visualization beyond cluster dendrogram,
multidimensional scaling of distance matrix input, internal and
external cluster statistics (e.g. Davies-Bouldin index, Rand index),
random subsampling of data to account for the instability of clusters,
and non-hierarchical clustering methods. Obviously a well-organized
GUI is important, and we would seek out feedback and perhaps partner
developers.

I'd appreciate any direct feedback here, or suggestions of more
appropriate forums for getting feedback and having a discussion on the
topic.

Thank you,
Todd Gillette



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