<p>Tags serve several purposes.  Software tags inform us that</p>

<ul>
<li><p>the original proposer is interested in explanations or solutions that are, or can readily be expressed in, certain software platforms;</p></li>
<li><p>any code offered within the question or answer should be pretty-printed according to the specified syntax.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>For instance, in any thread with an <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/r" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;r&#39;" rel="tag">r</a> tag, the default formatting for code blocks will assume it's <code>R</code>.  (I don't know what happens when multiple software platforms are tagged.)</p>

<p>However, because this is a site about methods and concepts rather than software <em>per se</em>, we welcome answers that are independent of any specific platform and we accept answers that might be expressed in a language other than specified in the tags.  We do require that questions and answers can be understood by people who are not conversant with any particular programming language.  In particular, a question or an answer that consists entirely of code--even when it's in a tagged language--almost surely will be deleted.</p>
