R-beta: R and S: Differences to a person who has used neither
Brent Hutto (BHutto@IBM.Net)
Mon, 30 Jun 1997 21:31:25 +0000
Message-Id: <199707010133.BAA48808@out2.ibm.net>
From: "Brent Hutto" <BHutto@IBM.Net>
To: r-help@stat.math.ethz.ch
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 21:31:25 +0000
Subject: R-beta: R and S: Differences to a person who has used neither
I've read the FAQ section labeled "R and S", but the differences
discussed are a bit esoteric to a person who has used neither
(such as myself, for instance). FWIW, I've also read the article on
lexical scoping - a bit over my head, frankly.
I would like a modern statistical programming tool to allow me to
move beyond my limited exposure to SAS and similar packages. After a
few hours of playing around with R and xlispstat, I've picked R as a
likely candidate (just can't get used to prefix notation, I guess).
Can someone outline the differences between R and, say, S-plus that
would be obvious to a person just starting out programming? If I
stick to R will I be missing out on some "once you see it you've just
gotta have it" features? Any guidance available is much appreciated.
BTW, I don't really consider "telephone support" or "documentation" a
la commercial software to be a feature per se. I'm talking about the
basic capabilities of the software itself. I don't mind paying for
what I need, but the pricing structure of S-plus would probably mean
waiting until I have an "earn a living" type of task to do rather
than just a desire for learning. Plus it's still old Windows software
with 8.3 file names and memory limitations (last time I looked,
anyway).
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