"PHP of analytics" I started laughing, then I realized you meant that as a compliment. R has a great community and a ton of unique packages, though many of th

"PHP of analytics" I started laughing, then I realized you meant that as a compliment. R has a great community and a ton of unique packages, though many of those great packages are thin wrappers over Fortran/C libraries and are available in a host of other languages (Python, Julia) that, in my opinion, have better features when it comes to testing and group-based development. In my experience, R degenerates into a rat's nest more easily than the other candidates. I've been hired twice for this explicit reason. BTW, I think your comparison with PHP is apt. R has many of the same strengths and flaws.