[R] Best way to study internals of R ( mix of C, C++, Fortran, and R itself)?

Jeff Newmiller jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us
Tue Nov 21 22:19:16 CET 2017


1) What is easy for one person may be very hard for another, so your question is really unanswerable. You do need to know C and Fortran to get through the source code. Get started soon reading the R Internals document if it sounds interesting to you... you are bound to learn something even if you don't stick with it. If you have questions about the internals though, you should read the Posting Guide to find out where to ask them (hint: not here).

2) There are lots of blogs and surveys out there about how R's popularity has increased over time, though Python seems to have higher billing in job descriptions I have seen. Generally if you know multiple tools and the underlying theory you are working with then you are more likely to succeed, so don't limit yourself by dismissing R for reasons of comparative popularity.
-- 
Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.

On November 21, 2017 11:14:45 AM PST, Robert Wilkins <iwritecode2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>How difficult is it to get a good feel for the internals of R, if you
>want
>to learn the general code base, but also the CPU intensive stuff ( much
>of
>it in C or Fortran?) and the ways in which the general code and the CPU
>intensive stuff is connected together?
>
>R has a very large audience, but my understanding is that only a small
>group have a good understanding of the internals (and some of those
>will
>eventually move on to something else in their career, or retire
>altogether).
>
>While I'm at it, a second question: 15 years ago, nobody would ever
>offer a
>job based on R skills ( SAS, yes, SPSS, maybe, but R skills, year after
>year, did not imply job offers). How much has that changed, both for R
>and
>for NumPy/Pandas/SciPy ?
>
>thanks in advance
>
>Robert
>
>	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
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>and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.



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