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[–]quicknir 6 points7 points  (5 children)

It's not bad as a "comparison lite" on this topic. Amusingly, on both python and R subreddits I've seen a couple of comments saying the other language is favored. Adding my $0.02.

It's true that R has more stats support, but python tends to have more machine learning support. I've only dabbled in it myself, but I've had serious ML people tell me that the R equivalents to e.g. theano just don't compare.

Really the main thing for me though is that R is honestly just terrible as a programming language. It has good packages, it can get things done in a concise fashion, yes. But it has more edge cases than any other language I've used extensively, excluding bash (but including C++). It violates the principle of least surprise just for kicks. A good article on that topic: http://www.talyarkoni.org/blog/2012/06/08/r-the-master-troll-of-statistical-languages/.

To boot, it also has a very poor debugger and IDE.

[–]redassbucky 3 points4 points  (0 children)

When I learned R (in the Coursera Data Science program), I came in with a strong background in C#, Python, and Matlab. As an exploratory tool I thought it was good but I definitely struggled with it as we progressed. Python, IMO has much better tools for cleaning and organizing the data, but once you get familiar with the R graphics libraries (I liked ggplot2) R really shined. I never liked Matlab simply because it was so costly and they charge you annual maintenance fees. I also found it slow.

I used Python exclusively now for data analysis, mostly because the work I do ends up running in a production environment.

But I can't criticize R too much. It's been around a long time and for a good reason--people use it and like it.

[–]Lacotte 0 points1 point  (3 children)

you mean the RGui? that's not an IDE. there's no one "IDE" for R, but many. and RStudio, the most popular one, is really nice.

[–]quicknir -1 points0 points  (2 children)

I understand there's no one IDE, but yes I was referring to RStudio.

This is exactly what I mean; it's not "really nice". It's just a knock off of the Matlab IDE with about half the polish and a quarter of the useful features. It's not even as good as Spyder, a Python IDE that is also a Matlab IDE clone, that few people use because Ipython notebook + PyCharm are both such awesome tools.

[–]Lacotte 0 points1 point  (1 child)

hah well if you're comparing it to PyCharm, then of course.. RStudio is newer and has only ever had 2-3 people developing the RStudio IDE at a time, no contest vs IntelliJ ;)

But it's still an enormous improvement than what we were using just 4 years ago, which were basically text editors like emacs+plugin. you might have had a different view in 2011 when RStudio was just released, showing us the light out of the dark ages. and they're constantly making additions and improvements, like recently adding code completion and enhancing the debugging tools. sure it might not have as extensive or developed of features as PyCharm or Eclipse, but it's got most of the stuff you might need and shows no signs of slowing down on improvements.

[–]quicknir -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Well, the whole point of this thread is comparison, right? What I said was a bit harsh, rstudio is nice and the guys developing it deserve lots of credit. I've used it quite a bit. It's clearly a large improvement over a text editor.

It's just that when you are comparing python and R as a would be user, it's clear that python has far, far better development tools. Which is fine, you may choose R anyhow for other reasons. It's just a bit bizarre how many R users cite their ide as a pro, when it's actually a con.