If you&#x27;re new to R, I&#x27;d highly recommend learning everything using Hadley Wickham&#x27;s packages. When I was first getting started I had the same problem, and IMO Hadley&#x27;s solutions offer the best maintainability. Especially with how quickly R is growing, the time that Hadley has invested in teaching makes me believe that his approach will continue to be one of the guiding influences for the future of the language. Just my two cents though!