Posted by Ohene Akuoko
Intro:
This article was intriguing, a little tough to understand and enlighting all at the same time.As I read this article I noticed three things; R has an interesting history, I didnt know as much as I thought I knew about R and I knew a little more than I thought I knew. The authors gave great insights as to why certain capabilities were taken from either S or Scheme. As if R was the perfect birthchild of the two parent languages, obtaining the best traits of each parent.
What I learned..
I originally thought that that R was a language that was primarily based off original programming, but did not know the extent of which it retrieved most of its operating language. Some things I grew in my understanding in was, the definitions and the uses of Syntax and Semantics of a language. The authors broke down some of reasons and functions of syntax, semantics, and the language tools, which together makeup a language. I also thought it to be enlightening of explaination of why one trait of a program was chosen over another.For example,the methodology of free variables and why Scheme performs more improved evaluation process models at a more effeicent way than S. Explaining how S would deliver a search for a function in global models causing issues. So althought Syntax provides a solid body and structure, Scheme is the true engine that drives the program.
Correlations to Class..
The author also mentioned a few overarching topics that we also emphasize alot in this course, in data stewardship. An example is when they spoke of the ease of retrieving the the Syntax from S and Semantics from Scheme because of how “well-documented” those programs were by their respective authors. They also emphasized the importance of proper data mangement in Sec 3.4. which has been a focus area of this class as well.
How far has R come..
I also appreciate the authors admitting to the shortcomings at the time and wonder if those beginning issues are still prevelant today.
One issue that was mentioned in these early days of R was the storing issues of R where everything Rproduced was required to be stored internally. not allowing the use of external deviceslike Floppy disks or in today’sjumpdrives, which we now has been updated to include the external storage. Another improvement that was mentioned and seemed to have been carried out was the possibility of performing selective complilingThe authors also mention that the use of = and <- was not favorable at the time, I wonder what caused the = to be incorporated in other updates. functions along with interpreted functions in future R updates.