Being able to assemble a solution from parts (as in R packages) is super flexible. But complex and potentially brittle. Reproducability is a big problem all ar

Being able to assemble a solution from parts (as in R packages) is super flexible. But complex and potentially brittle. Reproducability is a big problem all around. When I create releases I put the binaries as well as the source in version control, because changes in tools/libraries etc mean that I probably won't be able to create the exact same binary several years later from the same source. There is always a tradeoff between flexibility and simplicity. Clearly software needs to be able to change, or you are never going to be able to improve it or fix bugs. And an assembly of constantly changing parts is clearly going to come with its own challenges. My own software product, Easy Data Transform (which competes with R to some extent) trades off some flexibility for simplicity by having a single set of binaries for each platform. You can't add any components (without hacking). So the same version of software should always give the same result.