1) Is R efficient? (scripting wise, and performance wise) _ Depends on how you code it- some Packages like foreach can help but basic efficiency come from programmer. XDF formats from Revoscalar -the non open R package further improve programming efficiency
2) Should R be written from scratch?
You got to be kidding- It depends on how you define scratch after 2 million users
This has been done with S, then S Plus and now R.
3) What should be the license of R (if it was made a new)?
GPL license is fine. You need to do a better job of executing the license. Currently interfaces to R exist from SPSS, SAS, KXEN , other companies as well. To my knowledge royalty payments as well as formal code sharing does not agree.
R core needs to do a better job of protecting the work of 2500 package-creators rather than settling for a few snacks at events, sponsorships, Corporate Board Membership for Prof Gentleman, and 4-5 packages donated to it. The only way R developers can currently support their research is write a book (ny Springer mostly)
Eg GGplot and Hmisc are likely to be used more by average corporate user. Do their creators deserve royalty if creators of RevoScalar are getting it?
If some of 2 million users gave 1 $ to R core (compared to 9 million in last round of funding in Revolution Analytics)- you would have enough money to create a 64 bit optimized R for Linux (missing in Enterprise R), Amazon R APIs (like Karim Chine’s efforts), R GUIs (like Rattle’s commercial version) etc etc
The developments are not surprising given that Microsoft and Intel are funding Revolution Analytics http://www.dudeofdata.com/?p=1967
R controversies come and go (this has happened before including the NYT article and shakeup at Revo)
An interesting debate on whether R should be killed to make an upgrade to a more efficient language.
From Tal (creator R Bloggers) and on R help list-
There is currently a (very !) lively discussions happening around the web, surrounding the following topics:
1) Is R efficient? (scripting wise, and performance wise)
2) Should R be written from scratch?
3) What should be the license of R (if it was made a new)?Very serious people have taken part in the debates so far. I hope to let you know of the places I came by, so you might be able to follow/participate
in these (IMHO) important discussions.The discussions started in the response for the following blog post on
Xi’An’s blog:
http://xianblog.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/insane/
Followed by the (short) response post by Ross Ihaka:
http://xianblog.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/simply-start-over-and-build-something-better/
Other discussions started to appear on Andrew Gelman’s blog:
http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2010/09/ross_ihaka_to_r.htmlAnd (many) more responses started to appear in the hackers news website:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1687054I hope these discussions will have fruitful results for our community,
Tal—————-Contact
Details:——————————————————-
Contact me: Tal.Galili@gmail.com | 972-52-7275845
Read me: www.talgalili.com (Hebrew) | www.biostatistics.co.il (Hebrew) |
www.r-statistics.com (English)
My 0 cents ( see it would 2 cents but it;s free)
DECISION STATS 
I think the sad fact is that the only way to ‘make money’ from R, is to get hired by a corporation. I honestly don’t think there is any direct money in writing some cool new package. The recognition from doing so will get you hired, but I think thats where it ends.