jon@utcs.uucp (Jon Alexander) (05/22/86)
Can anyone tell me what machines/operating systems the "S"
package/language is available for? I understand it is available
for 4.2BSD Unix, and AT&T's Unix.
Also (I haven't really used S, remember, I've just read some
documentation), what makes it different from other "statistical
analysis" software?
--
Jon 'Big J' Alexander, U. of Toronto Comp. Serv.
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
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BITNET: jon@utorontorab@alice.UucP (Rick Becker) (06/03/86)
> From Jon 'Big J' Alexander, U. of Toronto Comp. Serv. > !{decvax}!utzoo!utcs!jon > {ihnp4 } > Can anyone tell me what machines/operating systems the "S" > package/language is available for? I understand it is available > for 4.2BSD Unix, and AT&T's Unix. > > Also (I haven't really used S, remember, I've just read some > documentation), what makes it different from other "statistical > analysis" software? S is a language and system for analytical computing, data analysis, graphics, and data management. It provides simple, interactive access to a wide range of statistical techniques. The main strengths of S are the simplicity and generality of the language, the emphasis on interaction and graphics, the automatically-maintained, self-describing data structures, and the facilities for the extension of S to new application areas and new computational methods. Generally, S is more powerful than other statistical systems in the range of things it can express and in the facilities for extending this range. It also contains a large number of specific statistical, graphical, and other analyses. S is provided in source form and runs under System V, Berkeley 4.2, and a few older versions of the UNIX system. In general, since S is large, it is best used only on machines with a large address space (68000 systems, Vaxen, 3B2, 3B20, etc). The critical factor in bringing it up on a particular machine is usually the way inter-language subroutine calls are handled. Basically, most of S is written in Ratfor, but the code that interfaces to the UNIX system is written in C. Hence, it is important that calls between Fortran and C work well. The C routines use the calling sequences described in the article "A Portable Fortran 77 Compiler" by S. I. Feldman and P. J. Weinberger, from Volume 2B of the UNIX Seventh Edition documents. S can be obtained from: AT&T Technologies Software Sales P.O. Box 25000 Greensboro, North Carolina 27420 (800) 828-UNIX -- Rick Becker alice!rab research!rab