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The type system is so abhorrent, it makes me wonder if it's actually proper to call R a real programming language
by isoprophlex 4y ago
The type system is so abhorrent, it makes me wonder if it's actually proper to call R a real programming language
- kgwgk 4y ago"There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses."
- dunefox 4y agoThis crappy quote is always used to justify bad design.
- isoprophlex 4y agoI'm sorry, did you mean [1] "There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses." :^)
- mike_ivanov 4y agowhat specifically is abhorrent about it?
- isoprophlex 4y agoThe coercion always gets on my nerves, JavaScript gets a bad rep but R is pretty damn warty too; weird ass data types ('ordered factor', anyone) that just seem so very far away from design choices in other languages without being particularly ergonomic or aesthetically appealing
- kyllo 4y agoThe data types make sense to statisticians. Ordered factors are great when you need to fit, say, an ordered logit regression model.
- mike_ivanov 4y agoWhich coercion specifically are you talking about? Could you give an example? Weird data types: R had been designed for and by statisticians with their specific needs in mind, which indeed could look weird to regular people.
- goatlover 4y agoAnd from a different point of view, real programming languages have built-in vectorization and 1-based arrays ;)