R vs Swift

Overview

Swift

Stacks21.9K

Followers13.6K

Votes1.3K

R Language

Stacks3.9K

Followers1.9K

Votes418

R vs Swift: What are the differences?

Key Differences between R and Swift

R and Swift are programming languages that are widely used in different domains. While R is primarily used for statistical analysis and data visualization, Swift is used for developing iOS and macOS applications. Here are the key differences between the two languages:

Syntax: R has a more concise and expressive syntax which is specifically designed for data manipulation and analysis. On the other hand, Swift has a more structured syntax that follows a strict set of rules, making it more suitable for general-purpose programming.
Type System: R is a dynamically typed language, meaning that variable types are determined at runtime. This allows for more flexibility but can also lead to potential type errors. In contrast, Swift is a statically typed language, where variable types are checked at compile-time, reducing the chances of type-related bugs.
Object-Oriented Programming: Both R and Swift support object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts, but Swift has a stronger emphasis on OOP. In Swift, everything is an object and follows a class-based inheritance model. R, however, is a functional programming language, and while it supports OOP, it also embraces functional programming paradigms.
Performance: Swift is compiled to highly optimized machine code, making it significantly faster than R. This makes Swift more suitable for developing high-performance applications that require quick response times, while R is more focused on data analysis and exploration.
Package Ecosystem: R has a vast and mature ecosystem of packages and libraries specifically built for data analysis and statistical modeling. It has a wide range of tools for implementing machine learning algorithms, data visualization, and data manipulation. Swift, being primarily used for app development, has a more limited package ecosystem, with a focus on tools for user interface development and iOS/macOS frameworks.
Community and Popularity: R has a wide user base in the data science and statistics community and is heavily used in research and academia. It has a strong and active online community, with numerous forums and resources available. Swift, on the other hand, gained popularity with the advent of iOS development and has a large community of mobile app developers. It has extensive documentation and support from Apple and is continuously evolving.

**In Summary, R and Swift differ in their syntax, type system, programming paradigm, performance, package ecosystem, and community support. While R is specialized for data analysis and statistics, Swift is primarily used for iOS and macOS app development.

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Advice on Swift, R Language

Gabor

CTO at momento.

Aug 23, 2021

Decided

As a startup, we need the maximum flexibility and the ability to reach our customers in a more suitable way. So a hybrid application approach is the best because it allows you to develop a cross-platform application in a unique codebase. The choice behind Ionic is Angular, I think that angular is the best framework to develop a complex application that needs a lot of service interaction, its modularity forces you (the developer) to write the code in the correct way, so it can be maintainable and reusable.

209k views209k

Comments

Adit

Founder at Stardust

Oct 22, 2021

Needs adviceon

Rails

Rust

Swift

Hey there, we are looking to develop our own layer 1 blockchain. We're splitting the responsibilities for origination, clearing, and settlement across three independent but cooperating node networks. We've gotten our Proof of Concept up using Ruby on Rails for the nodes, you can see it as the attached link. So far, so good. Now we are looking to convert it into a distributable and are trying to figure out which language is the best for this.

Essentially our needs from the language are: solid networking tools and speed, very fast execution of basic actions, some parallel execution, and able to compile the end product into an easy to distribute and use package for end users.

I was learning Rust, but I have a healthy amount of experience with Swift and right now, it's only me coding. I've only done iOS coding, but have built a fintech app from scratch that's now in the app store so I'm pretty familiar with the language and its benefits. Haven't experimented with Vapor or any of the application development tools, and I wanted to know if it is a crazy idea to develop a blockchain node in Swift instead.

132k views132k

Comments

vargamatyas

Nov 22, 2020

Needs adviceon

Python

Swift

React Native

Hey guys, I learned the basics (OOP, data structures & some algorithms) with Python, but now I want to learn iOS development. I am considering to learn Swift, but I am afraid how the native mobile development will die out because of the cross-platform frameworks and reviews. My idea is to learn web development first and then learn React Native, and after all of that, finally Swift. What do you think about this roadmap? Should I just learn Swift first due to the pros of the native apps?

126k views126k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Swift	R Language
Writing code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and apps run lightning-fast. Swift is ready for your next iOS and OS X project — or for addition into your current app — because Swift code works side-by-side with Objective-C.	R provides a wide variety of statistical (linear and nonlinear modelling, classical statistical tests, time-series analysis, classification, clustering, ...) and graphical techniques, and is highly extensible.
Statistics
Stacks 21.9K	Stacks 3.9K
Followers 13.6K	Followers 1.9K
Votes 1.3K	Votes 418
Pros & Cons
Pros 259 Ios 180 Elegant 126 Not Objective-C 107 Backed by apple 93 Type inference Cons 6 Must own a mac 2 Memory leaks are not uncommon 1 Very irritatingly picky about things that’s 1 Complicated process for exporting modules 1 Its classes compile to roughly 300 lines of assembly	Pros 86 Data analysis 64 Graphics and data visualization 55 Free 45 Great community 38 Flexible statistical analysis toolkit Cons 6 Very messy syntax 4 Tables must fit in RAM 3 Arrays indices start with 1 2 No push command for vectors/lists 2 Messy syntax for string concatenation
Integrations
Cocoa Touch (iOS)	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Swift, R Language?

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

Related Comparisons

R vs Swift: What are the differences?

Key Differences between R and Swift

Syntax: R has a more concise and expressive syntax which is specifically designed for data manipulation and analysis. On the other hand, Swift has a more structured syntax that follows a strict set of rules, making it more suitable for general-purpose programming.
Type System: R is a dynamically typed language, meaning that variable types are determined at runtime. This allows for more flexibility but can also lead to potential type errors. In contrast, Swift is a statically typed language, where variable types are checked at compile-time, reducing the chances of type-related bugs.
Object-Oriented Programming: Both R and Swift support object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts, but Swift has a stronger emphasis on OOP. In Swift, everything is an object and follows a class-based inheritance model. R, however, is a functional programming language, and while it supports OOP, it also embraces functional programming paradigms.
Performance: Swift is compiled to highly optimized machine code, making it significantly faster than R. This makes Swift more suitable for developing high-performance applications that require quick response times, while R is more focused on data analysis and exploration.
Package Ecosystem: R has a vast and mature ecosystem of packages and libraries specifically built for data analysis and statistical modeling. It has a wide range of tools for implementing machine learning algorithms, data visualization, and data manipulation. Swift, being primarily used for app development, has a more limited package ecosystem, with a focus on tools for user interface development and iOS/macOS frameworks.
Community and Popularity: R has a wide user base in the data science and statistics community and is heavily used in research and academia. It has a strong and active online community, with numerous forums and resources available. Swift, on the other hand, gained popularity with the advent of iOS development and has a large community of mobile app developers. It has extensive documentation and support from Apple and is continuously evolving.

R vs Swift

Overview

R vs Swift: What are the differences?