Yes, you need to study. AI is good at doing things repetitively, but it misses obvious vectorizations and duplicates analyses at the drop of a hat rather than factoring code into functions if you don't guide it.
I know, I know, "it is improving fast"... but you need to understand good architecture to avoid letting "almost identical" analyses slip through and having missed requirements. The better you know how to explain what you want, the better the results will be... and you cannot do that if you don't already have a vision for how it will accomplish your task. The better AI gets at being creative, the more trouble it has meeting requirements... the "temperature" it is setup with has to be high enough for it to refine from its initial bad attempts toward a goal, but not so high that it hallucinates, and this is no easier to get right with AI than it is with junior programmers. Study hard... the productivity floor is rising. On February 14, 2026 11:40:58 AM PST, Arun Kumar Saha <[email protected]> wrote: >In the era of tools like ChatGPT, is it still worthwhile to invest >significant effort in writing R programs from scratch? > > > >On Sat, 14 Feb 2026 at 04:16, Ian Farm <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Advanced R by Hadley Wickham has a helpful section on functional >> programming in R: >> >> https://adv-r.hadley.nz/fp.html >> >> Best of luck, >> Ian >> ____ >> Ian Farm >> Laboratory Manager, University of Maine Agroecology Lab >> >> On Thu, Feb 12, 2026 at 12:00 PM SAAD LAMJADLI <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> > Dear R Users, >> > >> > I am looking for a roadmap to learn advanced functional programming in R. >> > >> > I have already read *Functional Programming* by Thomas Mailund, and I have >> > been studying base R functions to understand how they are written and to >> > learn from their design. I have analyzed and rewritten dozens of base R >> > functions, and this process has been very instructive. However, I still >> > find it difficult to write more complex and robust functions on my own. >> > >> > I would be very grateful for any advice you might have — whether in the >> > form of recommended books, learning strategies, advanced resources, or >> > suggestions for progressing toward more advanced functional programming >> > skills in R. Additionally, I was wondering if there are any official >> > workshops, teaching sessions, or training initiatives focused on advanced >> > functional programming within the R ecosystem. >> > >> > Kind regards. >> > >> > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] >> > >> > ______________________________________________ >> > [email protected] mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see >> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >> > PLEASE do read the posting guide >> > https://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >> > >> >> [[alternative HTML version deleted]] >> >> ______________________________________________ >> [email protected] mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >> PLEASE do read the posting guide https://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > >______________________________________________ >[email protected] mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see >https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >PLEASE do read the posting guide https://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. -- Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity. [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide https://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
