R: The language and the program
Pedro José Aphalo · 2020
This chapter describes the advantages and disadvantages of textual command languages such as R compared to menu-driven user interfaces as frequently used in other statistics software and occasionally also with R. It discusses the role of textual languages in the very important question of reproducibility of data analyses. A small fraction of users will directly contribute improvements to the R program itself, but it is possible, and those contributions are important in making R reliable. Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) are used when developing computer programs. IDEs provide a centralized user interface from within which the different tools used to create and test a computer program can be accessed and used in coordination. Reproducible data analysis is much more than a fashionable buzzword. Most approaches to reproducible data analysis are based on automating report generation and including all the computer commands used to generate the results presented.