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The Power of the R Programming Language

Posted by samzenpus on from the much-better-than-Q dept.

BartlebyScrivener writes "The New York Times has an article on the R programming language. The Times describes it as: 'a popular programming language used by a growing number of data analysts inside corporations and academia. It is becoming their lingua franca partly because data mining has entered a golden age, whether being used to set ad prices, find new drugs more quickly or fine-tune financial models. Companies as diverse as Google, Pfizer, Merck, Bank of America, the InterContinental Hotels Group and Shell use it.'"

21 of 382 comments (clear)

  1. What's a pirate's favorite programming language? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    R!

  2. Well... by Weaselmancer · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving is not for you.

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  3. Re:Based on S by irtza · · Score: 4, Funny

    Trying to find middle ground with C?

    --
    When all else fails, try.
  4. Re: hence: when he restored unto Moses fled from m by RuBLed · · Score: 3, Funny

    All that scrambled verses and you forgot the part where the Nazi torpedoed Noah's Ark so it ran aground at the mountains of Ararat.

  5. Sure about that? by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 4, Funny
    I'd have guessed perl. Think about it
    1. Sounds like treasure ( pearls)
    2. Reinforces their need to hide their booty by making indecipherable maps to the treasure buried within
    3. Incomprehensible mangling of commong symbols, like their english dialect.
    4. It often requires the programmer to consume large amounts of rum as a coping mechanisim
    5. New virtual machine Parrot named after favorite pet
    6. Can use actual pirate language to program Acme::Lingua::Pirate::Perl
    --
    Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
    1. Re:Sure about that? by i_ate_god · · Score: 3, Funny

      not to mention that, because of reason 3, it is the most drunk-friendly programming language there is.

      --
      I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
    2. Re:Sure about that? by ppanon · · Score: 4, Funny

      Didn't they make a pirate movie call "The curse of the Black Perl"? Presumably it's about particularly obfuscated legacy code.

      --
      Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
    3. Re:Sure about that? by WWWWolf · · Score: 2, Funny

      Didn't they make a pirate movie call "The curse of the Black Perl"? Presumably it's about particularly obfuscated legacy code.

      No, it's more darker and sinister than that...

  6. Re:What's a pirate's favorite programming language by fred+fleenblat · · Score: 4, Funny

    http://www.arrrrrr.com/corsair.jpg

  7. Re:r-project.org by DahGhostfacedFiddlah · · Score: 5, Funny

    the libraries available for doing such analysis are unparalleled.

    With multi-core processors becoming more and more prevalent, R's developers should remedy this as soon as possible.

    --
    Last post!
  8. Re:Only for certain kind of analyst... by PachmanP · · Score: 5, Funny

    So we can the financial crisis on idiots who don't understand that GIGO applies in EVERY computer language?

    No, but we can the dropping of verbs on idiots who don't understand that they apply to EVERY sentence!

    --
    You're thinking small. Why miniaturize the laser, when we could instead enlarge the sharks? -John Searle
  9. Don't be ridiculous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    You didn't have any friends in the 3rd grade.

  10. Re:Based on S by digitig · · Score: 5, Funny

    It could be worse. Try searching for the natural language processing system "Lolita".

    --
    Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
  11. Re:What's a pirate's favorite programming language by roaddemon · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, it's P. It's like R but it's missing a leg!

  12. Re:Only for certain kind of analyst... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    No, but we can the dropping of verbs on idiots who don't understand that they apply to EVERY sentence!

    Now, now; maybe he accidentally a coca-cola bottle.

  13. Re:Based on S by cerberusss · · Score: 3, Funny

    I tried. The search results are extremely relevant to my interests. Of course, I don't use the natural language processing system "Lolita".

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    8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
  14. Re:Only for certain kind of analyst... by arelas · · Score: 4, Funny

    I assumed it was the new pirate language everyone was raving about.

    --
    This is where my sig would go if I had one...

  15. Re:Based on S by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 3, Funny

    That "Post Anonymously" button is kind of hard to miss these days.

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    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  16. Re:Only for certain kind of analyst... by Mr.+Theorem · · Score: 2, Funny

    Labview: putting the spaghetti in spaghetti code.

    --
    *** Work like a king, command like a slave, create like a dog.
  17. Re:Only for certain kind of analyst... by przemekklosowski · · Score: 2, Funny
    The best characterization of LabView is:

    Finally we can write spaghetti code that looks like spaghetti.

  18. Re:Only for certain kind of analyst... by blueskies · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why don't they just use Word if they need a database??

    http://www.neopoleon.com/home/blogs/neo/archive/2003/09/29/5458.aspx