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Basically this. Certainly not the worst language (SAS), but intangibly less pleasurable than python or most other common languages I've used. Maybe that's becau
by nol13 10y ago
Basically this. Certainly not the worst language (SAS), but intangibly less pleasurable than python or most other common languages I've used. Maybe that's because I'm not a 'real' stats person though and ~ notation still takes me a minute to grok. And there is no challenger on he horizon for it's dominance in available packages. And at least it's not SAS.
My theories:
A) Stat people use R because because they don't know any better
B) Stat people use R because code monkeys use python
C) Stat people use R because stat people use R (probably this)
- minimaxir 10y agoD) Stat people use R and Python, depending on what best fits the use case.
- nol13 10y agoYa but the only use case for R over python is because some package is written in it.
- hadley 10y agoNo. R is a language that is beautifully well suited to data analysis and interactive computing. Stat people don't use it simply because we don't know better.
- Myrmornis 10y agoAs a language, one problem is that it is many people's first programming language, and it's a very bad introduction. In particular it doesn't teach people to think in terms of standard data structures like hash maps / dicts. It's bad for the job prospects of lots of grad students who might hope to leave academia.