Encapsulation (private vs. public fields); reference semantics (modify objects in-place); method chaining.
Reference Classes are built into base R and function similarly to R6 but are built on top of S4.
S3 is R’s original, informal OOP system. It is essentially a list with a "class" attribute. Advanced Object-Oriented Programming in R: Stat...
Massive, interconnected systems like the Bioconductor project where data integrity is paramount.
Advanced Object-Oriented Programming in R: Strategic Selection Encapsulation (private vs
R6 (via the R6 package ) provides "classical" OOP similar to Java or C++.
90% of R tasks, especially providing print() , summary() , or plot() methods for new data types. Pros: Minimal boilerplate; easy to learn; highly flexible. S3 is R’s original, informal OOP system
No formal validation; it relies on naming conventions (e.g., generic.class ). 2. S4: The Rigorous Contract