Have I missed unknown pleasures in Python by focusing on R?

A comment on my blog post of last week suggested just that. Reason enough to explore Python a little. Learning another computer language is like learning another human language – it takes time. Often it is helpful to start by translating from the new language back into the old one.

I found a Python script by Ludwig Schwardt that creates a plot like this:


It is only a small Python script, but it illustrated how to:

• load packages
• use conditional statements
• add comments
• write functions
• deal with arrays
• write loops
• create plots
• save output into a PDF file

Here is my translation into R, which actually generated the plot above.

R code

Session Info

R version 3.1.2 (2014-10-31)
Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin13.4.0 (64-bit)

locale:
[1] en_GB.UTF-8/en_GB.UTF-8/en_GB.UTF-8/C/en_GB.UTF-8/en_GB.UTF-8

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods  
[7] base     

other attached packages:
[1] signal_0.7-4 e1071_1.6-4 

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] class_7.3-11 MASS_7.3-35  tools_3.1.2