Thank You for Sharing

I recall reading something many years ago that talked about the distinction between material things and ideas. If you have a hamburger and decide to share it with someone, you have less than you would have otherwise. In fact, because the hamburger is finite, there is a limit to how many people you can share it with while still retaining some benefit for yourself. With ideas, on the other hand, you get to keep the "whole" idea even if you share it with others. (Determining appropriate attribution for an idea is a whole different set of issues.) One can consider computer code the expression of an idea which, given digital distribution, can be shared with others without reducing the benefit to the creator.

As an almost daily user of either R or Python, I am in awe of the extensive ecosystem around these languages. Although I'm not a free (as in libre) software purist (I've tried at times, but forces conspire to push me back to "what everyone else is using"), I greatly appreciate the efforts of people who contribute their ideas to these projects in the form of code and documentation. Thank you for sharing!