Expansion and evolution of the R programming language.

ABSTRACT: Languages change over time, driven by creation of new words and cultural pressure to optimize communication. Programming languages resemble written language but communicate primarily with computer hardware rather than a human audience. I tested whether there were detectable changes over time in use of R, a mature, open-source programming language used for scientific computing. Across 393 142 GitHub repositories published between 2014 and 2021, I extracted 143 409 288 R functions, programming 'verbs', pairing linguistic and ecological analyses to detect change to diversity and composition of functions used over time. I found the number of R functions in use increased and underwent substantial change, driven primarily by the popularity of the 'tidyverse' collection of community-written exten

SUBMITTER: Staples TL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10090872 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature