from polars import col as C

    df.select(C.x, y = C.w / C.z)

To me, I immediately wonder whether w, x, y, and z here are variables or column names. It would indeed be nice if python could more tersely represent the distinction between a name and a literal string (or worse, as in your R example, a variable reference), but alas. But I think trading some verbosity for explicitness about this distinction is a pretty good trade, and very in keeping with python style.

R really is/was the superior traditional data science language. Python ecosystem is slowly catching up though.

ggplot vs matplotlib

dplyr vs pandas

And I loved that everything in RStudio was so easily inspectable. Have a huge dataframe? Just look at it right in your IDE.

Fair point, but you can do something like

`df.select("x", y=pl.col.w/pl.col.z)`

Polars is a world away from pandas, but I feel that dplyr still offers the most simple and understandable introduction to data analysis for the beginner. The above is a good example of this.