R does have namespaces. Take a look at the NAMESPACE file found at the root of e...

_Wintermute · 2024-03-20T18:46:06 1710960366

> which defines the symbols and methods exported by the package

Which are all dumped into the one single global namespace regardless if you want everything or not.

I can't remember the exact number, but tidyverse package imports literally thousands of things into your global namespace on package load, coupled with any other dependencies and you have a hell of a time figuring out where any function or constant came from.

mjhay · 2024-03-20T19:48:32 1710964112

Calling library() is kind of an antipattern in production R code. You can either call namespaced functions (like say dplyr::mutate()), or use roxygen.

https://roxygen2.r-lib.org/articles/namespace.html

disgruntledphd2 · 2024-03-20T20:27:12 1710966432

Agreed but the GP isn't wrong. It's much much nicer to import a library with an alias in Python.