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I don't know why a programmer would limit them self with static data tools when d3 and processing provide beautiful, dynamic, and interactive solutions with a similar learning curve. The only difference is you can use the JavaScript chops you pick up learning d3 in any front end work you do.

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people use R for much more than data visualization, doing regressions, fitting SVMs, decisions trees, GARCH and ARMA time series models, isn't really trivial in javascript.

also ggplot, while more limited is way easier and faster than d3 for doing the specific things that ggplot is good at. But for statistics, that's usually what you want

Sounds great! What's the MCMC package for javascript?

https://npmjs.org/package/mcmc

I worked with a computer scientist once, and he tested out lots of languages for replacing his VB setup (I know, I was surprised too). JS turned out to be the fastest language for a lot of his tests. If the libraries ever get there, it will be lethal. Presumably there might be a way to compile java libraries to JS using Rhino, but its not something I've ever investigated.

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