A Short History of R

Schwab

Why R?

The top three languages in Data Science right now are:

  • Python (pandas, numpy, pytorch)

  • R (tidyverse)

  • SQL

    Probably in that order.

Interchangeable

Learning how to work with data is similar from on language to another.

R, I think, is the most convenient way to get students working with Data.

For vizualization: the ggplot ecosystem is nicer than pandas.

The RStudio and R work very well together.

A short history of R.

See this site for a longer history with fewer pictures.

Before R there was S

“S is a language that was developed [in 1976] by John Chambers and others at the old Bell Telephone Laboratories”

S got bought and sold

TIBCO is the owner of S

Here’s a book on S

1996-2000 R is released for free

Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman of the university of Auckland Developed it.

Ross Ihaka

Robert Gentleman

Why is it called R?

version names

The versions of R are named after Peanuts comics or cartoons.

Pile of Leaves

Why? 4.4.2 release

Other versions

CRAN

Comprehensive R Archive Network

They manage all R updates and R packages. There are currently 19897 packages.

They put on the UseR! conference

There’s an R magazine

This is the CRAN team

The tidyverse

Hadley Wickham and others made it.

Who makes RStudio?

  • Started in 2009 as RStudio

  • The tidyverse comes out in 2016

  • Renamed Posit last year.

  • Offers Python, SQL, and other DS language Support

Deep Learning and AI

pytorch is becoming increasingly an increasingly popular method for deep learning in python.

R has torch, which is an implementation of pytorch in R.

The future

Posit has made a pivot toward integrating Python and Jupyter into their ecosystem with Quarto.

Quarto is a document that works with Python, R, and other languges.

Positron is an IDE independent of language forked from VS code.

Some Credits

  • Photo of John Chambers taken from Stanford’s website.

  • Photo of Ross Ihaka - https://www.auckland.ac.nz/content/auckland/en/science/about-the-faculty/department-of-statistics/ihaka-lecture-series/jcr:content/leftpar/imagecomponent/image.img.1024.medium.jpg/1561079330278.jpg

  • Photo by Robert Gentalman - https://calendar.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/hg_media/2024-25/Robert_Gentleman.jpg.webp?itok=0aDlOIOK

  • Photo by Hadley Wickham - Private correspondence, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46810731

  • Most of the details of this short history came from chapter 2 of Roger Peng’s R Programming for Data Science.

  • https://bookdown.org/rdpeng/rprogdatascience/history-and-overview-of-r.html