[R] On the Design of the R Language

[peter dalgaard]

On Apr 25, 2012, at 20:19 , Marc Schwartz wrote:

> I have not read it yet, but the acknowledgements at the end of the paper note that:
> 
> 1. It was supported by an NSF grant.
> 
> 2. At least two members of R Core are recognized amongst the list of names.

Also, most of the overall content is hardly a surprise to R Core (not that I have read it properly either). R as a language has many weaknesses and Luke can certainly attest the difficulties in writing compilers for R due to the fact that semantics can change at any moment (I believe that's what the authors refer to as "extreme dynamism"). 

Competent critical review by computer scientist should be welcomed, and in my opinion is long overdue. As has been said, the good _and_ the bad thing about R is that it was designed by statisticians...

-pd

> 
> Regards,
> 
> Marc Schwartz
> 
> On Apr 25, 2012, at 1:07 PM, Thomas Adams wrote:
> 
>> Hmmm∑ an 'objective' assessment? Maybe. But it looks to me that some
>> commercial enterprise paid for this study as a means to argue against the
>> use of R in favor of a commercial package∑
>> 
>> On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 1:48 PM, R. Michael Weylandt <
>> michael.weylandt at gmail.com> <michael.weylandt at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/jv/pubs/ecoop12.pdf
>>> 
>>> A new paper out on R the language -- I'm not all the way through it but
>>> it's been an interesting read so far. Thought it might be of interest to
>>> the list.
>>> 
>>> Michael Weylandt
>>>      [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
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-- 
Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School
Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Phone: (+45)38153501
Email: pd.mes at cbs.dk  Priv: PDalgd at gmail.com