Story
Too many R packages: CRAN is inundated with submissions
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Overview
CRAN is experiencing a rapid increase in the number of new R packages being accepted. There is ongoing debate within the R community about whether this growth is beneficial.
Summary from rworks.dev.
Reports
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Community reactions
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Hacker News · rworks.dev
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Based on 5 sampled comments from this thread. Analyzed 2026-06-24.
- Praise: AI is accelerating the learning curve for R users, making the language more accessible to those who may have struggled with programming before.
- Praise: The tidyverse ecosystem is praised for its coherence and functionality in machine learning and statistical computing, offering a streamlined approach for users.
- Praise: CRAN's human oversight ensures a higher quality of packages compared to more chaotic repositories, which could lead to more reliable tools for data analysis.
- Concern: The reliance on the tidyverse among R instructors is criticized for promoting redundant functions and anti-patterns, potentially hindering new users from mastering base R capabilities.
- Concern: Many packages on CRAN are seen as poorly documented or lacking in utility, contributing to a cluttered and confusing environment for users.
- Concern: There is a sentiment that R's popularity is waning compared to Python, suggesting a need for improvement in the language's ecosystem to retain users.