Discussion of "50 Years of Classification and Regression Trees"

In this discussion paper, we argue that the literature on tree algorithms is very fragmented. We identify possible causes and discuss good and bad sides of this situation. Among the latter is the lack of free open-source
implementations for many algorithms. We argue that if the community adopts a standard of creating and sharing free open-source implementations for their developed algorithms and creates easy access to these programs the bad sides of the fragmentation will be actively combated and will benefit the whole scientific community. (authors' abstract)