S-PLUS

Contents:

Availability

S-Plus version 6 is currently installed Kellogg's UNIX server, Skew3. The license allows up to three concurrent users. S-Plus is also available in the SSCC cluster.

S-Plus is a programming environment for data analysis. Highlights of S-Plus are its graphic capabilities, its orientation to exploratory data analysis and data mining, and the inclusion of many non parametric statistical methods. The main disadvantage of S-Plus is the steep learning curve to learn the programming language. S-Plus is based on the S language, developed at Bell Laboratories by statistician John M. Chambers.

Vendor information

Insightful Corporation
1700 Westlake Ave N, #500
Seattle, WA 98109-9891
Tel: 206-283-8802 (Support: extension 235)

Support

In order to get support from MathSoft, users must have the S-Plus version number and the corresponding serial number. To obtain this information:

• Version number: S-Plus shows the version number each time it starts. Within an S-Plus session, the version number can be obtained by issuing the "version" command.
• Serial number: From the Unix prompt, issue the "splus SERIAL" command.

MathSoft's technical support can be reached by e-mail at support@insightful.com, calling (206) 283-8802, extension 235 or by submitting an online form to request technical support.

Running S-Plus

S-Plus is an object oriented programming language. The first time a user launches S-Plus, it will create a directory called "MySwork" in the user's home directory. Within the "MySwork" directory, S-Plus stores its objects in a sub-directory called ".Data".

To ...	The command is
Start an interactive S-Plus session	splus
End an S-Plus session	q()
Run S-Plus in graphic mode under UNIX	splus -g &
Run S-Plus in batch mode	splus BATCH input outputfile
To open a graph window (X Windows session)	motif()
To send a graph to a postscript file	postscript("outfile.ps")
To close the postscript device	graphics.off() Alternatively, quit S-Plus

Examples and solutions

Examples of S-Plus code can be found in the different tutorials referenced in the links section below. In addition, there are S-Plus examples in the following locations:

• Modern Applied Statistics with S-PLUS: Software
• Using LaTeX and S-PLUS
• Steven Boker's web page at the University of Notre Dame. His class material includes examples of S-Plus code (for MS Windows)

Manuals available at Research Computing

Note: The S-Plus manuals are online, in Acrobat PDF format.

• S-Plus documentation at Kellogg
• S-Plus documentation at Insightful Corp.

Hard copies:

• Chambers, John M. (1998). Programming with Data. A Guide to the S Language. Lucent Technologies.
• Getting Started with S-Plus 5.1 (May 1999)
• Guide to Statistics (Sep. 1998)
• Installation and Maintenance Guide (May 1999)
• User's Guide (Sep. 1998)

Useful links

• S-Plus functions guide
• StatLib---Software and extensions for the S (Splus) language
• S-news introduction, information about the S-Plus user listerv and link to the list's archive
• Frequently Asked Questions about S.
• S-PLUS Statistical Software, an introduction at Princeton University
• S-Plus for Data Analysis. Introduction and Selected Topics, a more detailed introduction from Princeton University
• Notes on S-PLUS: A Programming Environment for Data Analysis and Graphics, by William Venables
• S-Plus tutorial, Columbia University
• Trellis display: Software documentation