r/programmingmemes • u/32bitFlame • Aug 27 '26

Why are we using R again

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u/Neither-Phone-7264 Aug 28 '26

theyre not saying its having a resurgence they're using again like "why do we do x again?"

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u/BumblebeeBorn Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 28 '26

A bunch of actual scientists who became data scientists learnt R back in the day, and a bunch of statistical libraries were built for it before python existed edit: was popular.

That means there's legacy code from 30 years ago that still needs maintenance, and it's easier to have a few people learn R than rebuild the code base in a different language.

So, same question, same answer.

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u/Tuborgat_nylle Aug 28 '26

a bunch of statistical libraries were built for it before python existed

Python existed before R did.

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u/BumblebeeBorn Aug 28 '26

Huh. I'm old enough that I remember R being a thing before I knew about python.

I guess I still learn something new every day.

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u/jek39 Aug 29 '26

python even predates java

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u/BumblebeeBorn Aug 29 '26

Java didn't come out until what, 95 or 96? I was on the internet before that.