Libraries and packages for machine learning

In R, Python, and Java environments, the base language comes with multiple functions, statements, operators, and calls. But the real power in all of these languages is the ability to add additional constructs written to extend the language for other purposes – in this case, machine learning. These constructs are bundled together in packages and libraries.

These terms can be a bit confusing. In R, a package contains one or more functions, the help files, and sample data – all grouped as files. An R library is where packages are stored.

In Python, a package is a collection of modules, which contain functions and other code.

Since Java is an object-oriented language, libraries contain classes. Since Java is operating system-independent, it includes the Java Class Library (JCL), which provides low-level access to calls for things such as file and networking access. These are most often bundled into a Java archive (.jar...