R (programming language)

Ross Ihaka (5189180796)

Ggplot2 Violin Plot

Plots from lm example

Mandelbrot Creation Animation

R (programming language) is a programming language and software environment used for statistical computing and graphics. Developed by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, it was first released in 1995. R is widely used among statisticians and data miners for developing statistical software and data analysis. It is considered an implementation of the S programming language combined with lexical scoping semantics inspired by Scheme.

Overview[edit | edit source]

R provides a wide variety of statistical (linear and nonlinear modelling, classical statistical tests, time-series analysis, classification, clustering, etc.) and graphical techniques, and is highly extensible. One of R's strengths is the ease with which well-designed publication-quality plots can be produced, including mathematical symbols and formulae where needed. The language is available as Free and open-source software under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Features[edit | edit source]

Data manipulation: R offers an extensive set of tools for data manipulation, including objects like vectors, matrices, and data frames.
Graphics: The base installation of R provides extensive graphical capabilities, and there are numerous packages that extend these capabilities.
Statistical analysis: R is equipped with a broad range of statistical techniques such as regression, classical statistical tests, time-series analysis, classification, and clustering.
Programming: R includes conditionals, loops, user-defined recursive functions, and input and output facilities.
Packages: The comprehensive R archive network (CRAN) hosts many additional packages that extend the functionality of R in various domains.

Development and Distribution[edit | edit source]

R is developed by the R Core Team, which includes some of the original developers and other prominent statisticians. The source code is written primarily in C, Fortran, and R itself and is freely available under the GNU General Public License. R operates on a variety of UNIX platforms, Windows and macOS.

Community and Culture[edit | edit source]

The R community is noted for its active contributions in terms of packages, with CRAN hosting over 15,000 packages as of the last count. These packages cover a wide range of topics from statistical methods to graphical user interfaces (like RStudio). In addition to CRAN, there is a vibrant community that contributes to forums, mailing lists, and conferences such as useR! which further the exchange of ideas and developments within the R ecosystem.

Criticisms and Challenges[edit | edit source]

While R is highly praised for its capabilities in statistical analysis and graphical models, it has faced criticism for memory management, speed, and efficiency when handling large datasets. However, improvements and alternatives like the Rcpp package have been developed to address these issues.

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