The New Zealand Herald published a nice profile of Ross Ihaka (who, with Robert Gentleman, created the very first version of R). This came out just after the New York Times article on R in January, but I only just found this followup. It includes a wonderful metaphor from Ross on the process of open-source development:
Dr Ihaka, of Pakeha and Ngati Kahungungu background, described R as the success of the rusting-hulk model of software development.
"My [doctoral] adviser from California visited for a year and he described a way of getting a car in New Zealand.
"If you went to a junkyard and hauled out an old junker and put it by the road and stood there looking helpless, people, being do-it-yourself types, would step and help you out, and after a couple of hours you'd have a pretty good car.
"So we cobbled this thing together and hung it out by the side of the internet, and after a few years we had a pretty good piece of software. But it's the contribution of lots of people."
If the metaphor holds, and given the power and cutting-edge state of R today, a junker left on the side of the road in New Zealand would eventually turn into a Formula 1 racer!
New Zealand Herald: Academic Unfazed by Rock Star Status
I don't think the metaphor extends the way you suggest. There are certain bits of baggage that are likely to hold back R from Formula 1 status. Things that come to mind include the event loop limitation for dynamic graphics, S3/S4 method mixing (particularly with generics that have to work with both), and inconsistent function names.
Posted by: Kevin Wright | May 19, 2009 at 11:52
R is a junker, that is for sure.
Posted by: dfgdfg | February 02, 2010 at 17:51