R and Python Communities for Developer

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Fecha de la noticia: 02-07-2019

R vs Python? Better R and Python: Two languages, two styles. A common goal: to domesticate the data.

If data science were a sport, R and Python would be the two best teams in the league for several seasons. If you are a Data Scientist or are close to this scientific-technical discipline, the two programming languages that come to your mind immediately are R and Python. However, far from considering them complementary languages, most of the time, we end up comparing virtues and defects of both languages as if we were in a competition. R and Python are excellent tools, but they are often conceived as rivals. Just search R vs Python in Google to get hundreds of entries that try to tip the scales in favour of one of them. Largely, this is because the data science communities have been determined to divide according to the programming language they use. We could say that there is an R team and a Python team and history is teaching us that these two teams are destined to be eternal rivals. The fans of both teams fervently believe that their language is superior to the other. Maybe, in the background, these two languages are not so different, but it seems that the people who use them do are.

Both languages show a spectacular growth and projection in recent years, leaving their classic rivals far away in most of the rankings of programming languages for data science.

Growth of R and Python in comparison with other programming languages for data science.

You have to also kept in mind that, while Python is a general-purpose programming language (with very good aptitudes for data science), R is a specific programming language for this discipline, created and designed since its origin with a clear orientation towards mathematics and statistics.

R and Python communities

In Spain there are different communities that group developers of one and another (misunderstood) sides.

The R Hispanic community brings together many of the events related to the world of R in our country. The Hispanic community organizes an annual conference that has been growing in popularity in recent years and where you can see the latest applications of R to real data science problems. Originally, they were events aimed at the academic field that little by little are giving entrance to applications coming from the business and applied world.

Worldwide, the R Foundation is the one who supports and maintains the R code development project as well as the one that promotes the world's biggest event around the R code - the UseR! Conference, which will be celebrated in Toulouse, France in 2019.

There are R user groups (hundreds in the world) in practically all developed countries and several of these groups are in countries such as the US, Canada or Russia. In this interactive map you can explore the activity of the R community around the world. http://rapporter.net/custom/R-activity/

A few years ago, an interesting movement began in the community of R users that resulted in the creation of user groups composed of women. The so-called R-Ladies groups have grown significantly, highlighting the importance of women in science and, in particular, in the field of data science.

Python

Predictably, the user communities of R are reflected in those of Python and vice versa. Starting by the end, the Python user community has its own PyLadie s sub-community with the focus on enhancing the presence of women in Python code development. In the same way, there was a Hispanic Python that unfortunately has no longer activity although we can find the web in the google file. For its part, the Python España association has been providing organizational support to the PyConEs conference since 2013. It is the national conference on the Python language, and financial aid to local communities.

Worldwide, in the same way as in R, the Python Software Foundation (PSF) is an organization dedicated to advancing open source technology related to the Python programming language. The PSF offers support to the Python development community through financial aid programs, the maintenance of technological infrastructures (such as the websites to store official documentation as well as libraries repositories) and finally, the organization of the PyConUS, the Python development conference in the United States.

En definitiva, las comunidades alrededor del código abierto u open-source forman un modelo de desarrollo de software basado en la colaboración abierta y en la transparencia en los procesos. Estas comunidades garantizan el desarrollo de código abierto de mayor calidad, más confiable, con una mayor flexibilidad y un menor coste al aprovechar el poder colectivo para la generación de código, acabando así con el vendor lock-in de las empresas de software propietario.

Las comunidades de desarrollo de estos lenguajes - estándares de facto en el mundo de la ciencia de datos - tienen mucho que aportar a las comunidades de datos abiertos. Las organizaciones mantenedoras de los repositorios de datos abiertos pueden seguir el camino marcado por las comunidades open-source. Más allá de almacenar y poner a disposición conjuntos de datos abiertos a través de diferentes mecanismos, la potencia de la comunidad reside en los usuarios. El foco ha de ponerse en crear modelos de compromiso (engagement) que atraigan el talento de los desarrolladores y creadores de contenido alentados por el acceso sencillo y rápido a los datos con los que moldear el futuro digital.

Content prepared by Alejandro Alija, expert in Digital Transformation and innovation.

Contents and points of view expressed in this publication are the exclusive responsibility of its author.