Command Line Subcommands in R Programming Language

Here’s the translation of the Go code to R, formatted in Markdown suitable for Hugo:

# Our first program will print the classic "hello world"
# message. Here's the full source code.

# In R, we don't need to import packages for basic printing
# or declare a main function. We can simply write our code
# at the top level.

print("hello world")

To run the program, save the code in a file named hello-world.R and use the Rscript command:

$ Rscript hello-world.R
[1] "hello world"

In R, we typically don’t compile our programs into binaries. Instead, we run R scripts directly or use them in an interactive R session.

To run the script in an interactive R session:

$ R
> source("hello-world.R")
[1] "hello world"

R also allows you to create packages, which are collections of R functions, data, and documentation. This is somewhat analogous to building binaries in other languages, as it allows you to distribute your code in a more structured way.

To create a simple package structure:

$ R
> library(devtools)
> create("helloworld")

This creates a new directory called “helloworld” with the basic structure of an R package. You can then add your R scripts to the R/ subdirectory of this package.

Now that we can run basic R programs, let’s learn more about the language.