Relationship between plotting packages in R

Question

I am just starting out with R, and beginning to start producing charts. I am aware that there are at least three different plotting packages, the standard one, ggplot2 and

Answer 1

There are 4 plotting systems. There is standard, grid, lattice, and ggplot2. The latter two are higher level systems built on the former two. Each has advantages and disadvantages.

Standard graphics gives you absolute control over plots and is great to make one plot just the way you like it. Lattice was developed to address situations where you want arrays of plots. It is very flexible and can plot most any function over your data and over any variable. If you want an arbitrary function applied to each subject's data and presented as a grid of plots, lattice is your baby. It's built on grid and almost the only way anyone uses the grid package.

The latest one, ggplot2, is both a graphing package and a new philosophy in graphing. It is based on "The Grammar of Graphics" by Wilkinson and attempts to do exactly that, generate a grammar for graphics. One merely has to learn the higher level syntax of terms like geom (what you plot), stat (statistics on the data), facet (individual panels), and you can construct very complex graphs. They generally come out quite lovely, especially for electronic distribution. Unfortunately, fine control of each individual detail is not available. There are certain things you simply cannot adjust. That said, many have come to the sane conclusion that it's a small price to pay for the easy way to describe high quality plots.

Have a look at some of the default and example graphs for ggplot2. If they appeal to you then I'd suggest you start there. If you can, try to learn to do everything through the basic grammar method. I personally think it's a mistake that Hadley has the convenience functions as the main help on the website. It seems to undermine the whole purpose of ggplot2. An abbreviated syntax is presented as the primary interface for the help but the book is all about the philosophy and fundamental grammar.

(I say that but I do most of my plotting in base graphics because I find it fun building every single component of the graphs.)