Python, the developer-friendly generalist data language, and R, the data expert’s language.

he same holds true of Python versus R, despite both being used by data science professionals. While R is a language developed by and for statisticians, Python has a more general-purpose existence. As such, there are far more jobs available to Python programmers, given its utility for developing Web applications and beyond.

Within the burgeoning  big data realm, we’re likely to see a melding of the two tools: Python, the developer-friendly generalist data language, and R, the data expert’s language. The question in my mind is whether we’ll need both long term.

Today, it’s certain that both can be helpful and are often used together, as Revolution Analytics’ David Smith notes: