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by FranzFerdiNaN 2359 days ago
I think the community that R users have managed to create is it's strength. Python has a community of software developers, while R has a community of people who use programming to solve their problems. It's a fundamental difference in mindset, one which really shapes the community.

What also helps is that R is so focused on data and statistics. It gives a focus to the users that really helps when it comes to finding help. Python is famously second best at everything, but that also means it's community is spread thinner over more subjects.
1 comments
halbritt 2359 days ago
It's this same reason that running anything that depends on R in production is a PITA.
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FranzFerdiNaN 2358 days ago
I run R in production and its absolutely fine and wasnt harder than pretty much any other thing in software development.
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halbritt 2358 days ago
I didn't suggest it was hard. I found CRAN repos to be insecure and unreliable.
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kwertzzz 2358 days ago
I am not a R user (using primarily julia and python), but can you expand on the insecure aspect of CRAN. Do you refer to (potentially) missing package signing (similar to [1])? I am not aware that python or julia support this either. Or is the software download over ftp/http instead of https?

[1] https://wiki.debian.org/SecureApt

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