should we discuss R?

[edbennett]

Currently the lesson is Python-specific, which is good for those who only know Python, but bad for those who only know R. It'd be good to help R users interact with Web resources as well. Options

• Separate R version of the lesson (disadvantage: would need work to keep both in sync)
• Separate episode on R methods for interacting with web resources (disadvantage: while for organised workshops only one or the other could be taught—with the workshop advertised as such—depending on the audience, it may give the impression that understanding both languages is necessary to follow the material)
• Parallel version of the Python-specific episodes with R syntax instead, like is done with C/Python/Fortran for this MPI course (disadvantage: I'm not sure this is even possible, given how different Python and R are; if it were, much of the narrative would have to become much more generic)

[blongworth]

I can help with translating for R if that would be useful. The SWC SQL course does this with method 2 above. Python requests and R httr are pretty similar, but method 2 seems like a good combination of easy and flexible.