What is a .R file?
The .r extension is mainly R language source, but also names REBOL scripts and classic Mac Rez resources.
R source
- What it is
- An R language script - statistics and data-analysis code. Analyser opens it as source with a preview and line count.
- How to tell it apart
- Analyser opens .r as source; the surrounding syntax tells the language.
- Did you know
- The R language is named after the first initials of its creators, statisticians Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman.
- R was written at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and released as free software under the GNU GPL in the mid-1990s.
- R's distinctive assignment arrow, <-, was inherited from the S language, which took it from APL keyboards that carried a dedicated left-arrow key.
REBOL / Rez resource
- What it is
- Less commonly, .r is a REBOL script or a classic Macintosh resource (Rez) text file. Analyser opens it as source.
- How to tell it apart
- Both are text and open as source.
- Did you know
- Classic Mac apps kept their icons, menus and dialogs in a 'resource fork' compiled from Rez text, an idea decades ahead of its time.
- REBOL was designed by Carl Sassenrath, the architect of the Amiga's multitasking operating-system kernel, and its name stands for Relative Expression Based Object Language.
- Apple's Rez had a companion tool, DeRez, that turned a compiled resource fork back into editable text - a rare round-trip decompiler for its day.
- Depth of analysis
- .R is an identification-grade format: Analyser recognises it from its bytes and decodes the header metadata it carries, rather than opening it in a full viewer. Formats that do get a full viewer are marked "Full" on the formats page.
- Open a .R file
- Drag a .R file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It is identified entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.