[R] application of R

[Marc Schwartz]

> On Jan 11, 2018, at 2:15 PM, muhammad ramzi <mramzi43 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> hello guys,
> 
> i am a petroleum engineering student and i will be having a long semester
> break and currently i am learning THE R PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE just out of
> interest. I would just like to know if i am able to design a business
> analysis software using R as in create a type of software that can be sold
> to business people. can this be done in R language?
> 
> another thing is if i do learn this all the way, what advantages will it
> give me in terms of future prospects and career development?


Hi,

To your first question, as R is open source and released under the GPL, there are legal issues that you will need to consider, which will be specific to the details of your plans, how your "application" is built, how it interacts with R, and importantly, the copying and distribution of the end product.

You should, first and foremost, contact a lawyer familiar with open source software, specifically GPL compatible licenses, so that you can get proper legal advice, which you will not get here. You risk legal/financial liabilities down the road if not done in compliance with the license requirements.

As a first pass, you should read:

  https://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-FAQ.html#Can-I-use-R-for-commercial-purposes_003f

and

  https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-faq.html

so that you can gain initial insights into some of the general implications of building a product for distribution (whether you give it away or sell it) that depends upon a GPL licensed application. 

Whether or not there is utility for the application you envision such that people would be willing to pay for it, will depend upon a variety of factors, not the least of which is what competition you face and the value of your planned application over others that are already in the marketplace.

To your second question, you are asking a biased, self selected audience. Thus, take that into account for any responses that you may get.

The responses relative to advantages are going to be, to some extent, broadly industry specific. That being said, in many domains, knowing R, along with other relevant applications and programming languages can only be beneficial in many cases.

R is becoming increasingly popular (e.g. see: https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/). However, depending upon the subject matter domain you will work in and to a large extent, the company or institution you will work for, those factors can have a material influence on the role that R might play in that environment.

Others can perhaps chime in with other thoughts and perhaps even industry specific insights for you.

Regards,

Marc Schwartz