Why use R6?
- Book mentions R6 is similar to the built-in reference classes.
- Then why use R6?
- R6 is simpler.
- RC requires you to understand S4.
- Comprehensive documentation.
- Simpler mechanisms for cross-package subclassing, which just works.
- R6 separates public and private fields in separate environments, RC stacks everything in the same environment.
- R6 is faster.
- RC is tied to R, so any bug fixes need a newer version of R.
- This is especially important if you’re writing packages that need to work with multiple R versions.
- R6 and RC are similar, so if you need RC, it will only require a small amount of additional effort to learn RC.