ruth@utstat.uucp (Ruth Croxford) (10/20/88)
Topic: The New S Language
Speaker: John Chambers
Statistics and Data Analysis Group
AT&T Bell Laboratories
Murray Hill, New Jersey
Date: Friday, October 28, 1988, 1:00 p.m.
Place: Sidney Smith Hall, room 2128, 100 St George St, University of Toronto
Abstract:
S is an interactive language and system for graphics, data analysis and
quantitative computing that has been in use at universities, and in industry
since 1984. A new version of S has just been written, retaining the best
features of the previous versions but incorporating a number of new features,
such as dynamically defined functions and direct interfaces to UNIX, Fortran
and C.
New S is a unified language that does away with the old macro processor
and interface language. It performs computations in double precision, and
has a complex data type. It includes graphics objects to represent plots,
programming support tools, the use of the language as data, and a formal
semantic model that lets user functions have extensive control over evaluation.
The recent changes have enhanced S as a tool for data analysis and have also
made it more suitable for implementing substantial applications. A book,
"The New S Language", describes in detail how to use S. This talk describes
some of the ideas behind new S and shows how it can be used in data analysis and
programming, illustrating along the way the changes from old S.
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Coffee and tea will be served in the Delury Lounge (SS6006) at 3:30 p.m.