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03-packages.Rmd
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03-packages.Rmd
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# The package ecosystem
## Extension Packages and CRAN
The vast array of add-on packages that extend the functionality of the R language are one of the biggest draws for new users. The R Project has several groups working within it, one of which is the 'CRAN Repository Maintainers', who run [CRAN](https://cran.r-project.org) - or the “Comprehensive R Archive Network”. CRAN is the place where R users go to obtain these additional packages.
The CRAN website currently contains more than 12,000 packages for R. These packages are submitted by the user community and then extensively checked for common problems before being published to the website. R itself contains a tool to download any packages that a user might require and install them ready for use. Such packages may extend R in a variety of ways: from adding new data processing algorithms to providing access to public datasets, or from providing R users a way to build their own web APIs to providing simple functions to interact with existing public APIs. The options are huge.
And it doesn't stop there. If you work in genomics there is an alternative to CRAN, called [Bioconductor](https://www.bioconductor.org/) that works in the same way, but has almost 1500 packages specific to that field. On top of that, it’s also possible to install packages directly from [GitHub](https://github.com), where much of the open-source development of R packages takes place. From GitHub it’s possible to install development versions of packages that have a stable version on CRAN as well as packages where the author has not submitted to CRAN.
The main CRAN site has an extensive selection of mirror sites around the world so it’s usually possible to use one that is located close to your physical location in order to spread the load across the system. The most commonly used of these mirrors is '[cloud.r-project.org](https://cloud.r-project.org)', which uses a globally distributed CDN to ensure high performance and resilience. Further to that, Microsoft run a site called [MRAN](https://mran.microsoft.com/) (the “M” stands for “Microsoft”) which is a daily snapshot of the official CRAN site. This means you can use MRAN to install packages as they would have been this time yesterday, last month, or last year. This can be a useful tool to aid reproducibility.
## Private CRAN-like systems
As well as the public CRAN, it’s also possible to build a private CRAN-like system. Often organisations will use this approach to publish internal packages that contain commercially sensitive information or otherwise wouldn't make sense in public. For example, a package that combines data from your HR and Payroll systems, or a package that provides corporate branding and styles for plots and presentations, probably wouldn't be of any use to anyone outside your organisation, but may be used by many people internally. Therefore, having the latest version of that package easily installable from a central place could be extremely useful to the business.
As well as publishing internal packages, a private CRAN-like system can also be used where access to the full public CRAN is not possible. This is quite common in server-based installations of R, where the server has no access to the public internet, and therefore the public CRAN. In these situations, one option is to allow access to CRAN, but many organisations choose instead to build a smaller internal version, hosting only those packages which have been approved for use inside the organisation.
## The Tidyverse
We’re not going to dwell on specific packages in this guide, but [the tidyverse](https://www.tidyverse.org/) warrants a special mention, due to its widespread usage and prominence within the community. The tidyverse is a collection of popular and widely used packages bundled together under this one umbrella banner. The packages share a common philosophy in their design and implementation, as well as their goals. Prolific package author Hadley Wickham, Chief Scientist at RStudio, oversees the team that maintains the packages. The tidyverse collection is a common feature among many R users’ installed packages.