Homework Question: Do some research on the relationship between the S language, which was developed by the Bell Lab and the R language, which is a clone of S, and the free and open source software (FOSS) movement.
Data analytics today is performed through statistical programs such as R, Stata, SPSS and others. But before the rise of these statistical programs, data analytics was partly analysis and partly coding (Becker & Urbanek, 2013). The need for a data analytical program, where data analysts did not need to stop to put in the required programming, was high because of the inconveniences old data analytical processes caused. The need for a better data analytical program brought along the creation and development of S and later the creation of R, the clone of S. This paper will look at S and R and their relationship between each other and also touch upon the free and open source software (FOSS) movement.
S was one of the first programming languages that focused on statistical and data analysis (Becker & Urbanek, 2013). S later developed into a complete environment specialized for data analysis, with support for graphics and plots (Becker & Urbanek, 2013). The major difference maker for S and R was the time these programs were created. S was being developed and modified for 15 years before R came along. The developers of S had to wait and see what new developments were going to come up in software and computing for them to develop new fucntions and processes in S. The developers of R just took the functions and programs that were already made in S and just developed from there. So R developers had a major head start because S developers went through all the beginning problems of creating a statistical program.
When S was first being developed, its developers wanted S to give back simple answers in the form of objects that could be manipulated by other functions within the same program. The problem arose that S constantly had to be updated with new functions to keep up with new methods that were being created. But R today is easy to extend (Becker & Urbanek, 2013). This means that R allows for objects, analysis, and visualizations from other programs to be brought into R and used for analysis (Becker & Urbanek, 2013). Also R was made into an open source software.
The free and open source software (FOSS) movement was a movement that countered neo-liberalism and general privatization by “defying ownership regulations in a key area of growth in contemporary capitalistic societies, namely, the construction and use of information” (Georgopoulou, 2009). This movement was for software users to do what they wanted with certain software and be able to share and interact with other software users and developers. This movement was what allowed for R to be what it is today, an open source program where anyone can use and make changes to the source code.
The development of S was the catalyst for R’s success today. S developers went through all of the growing pains and R developers merely took what S had and developed from there. The FOSS movement allowed for programs like R to be open source so that anyone would be able to use and make changes to the source code.
Sources:
• Becker, Rick & Urbanek, Simon. “From S to R: 35 Years of AT&T Leadership In Statistical Computing.” Research.att. Oct,2013. http://www.research.att.com/articles/featured_stories/2013_09/201309_SandR.html?fbid=AdZUNd4dkgk
• Georgopoulou, Panayiota.”The free/open source software movement Resistance or change?.” Civitas Porto Alegre. Volume 9. (2009).