On Fri, 27 Jul 2001, Ray Haraf wrote:
> Dear users,
>
> I want to learn one programming language. I have no background in
programming other than using statistical software such as SCA, TSP, SYSTAT.
I used for short period two or three modules of SAS. I'm trained in
mathematics. Given such a background should I go with S programming or
S-plus programming or R programming? What is the difference between
R and S programming? I assume S-plus is an improvement of S! Am I wrong?
What is or would be the "ideal" reference for a beginner.
A good way to look at this is that there is one langauge, `S' with three
dialects, S3, S4 and R. S3 is available currently only on Windows, as
implemented in S-PLUS 2000. S4 is available on Unix/Linux as S-PLUS 6.0,
and on Windows as S-PLUS 6.0 Real Soon Now (next month, I believe)
There is fairly little difference between any two of these.
So, learn the dialect for which you have an implementation (I use all
three, but S3 is clearly on its way out). It depends a bit on your
platform: R is most widely available but with unpaid support.
As for a book, I am biased, but there is a book called `S Programming'
by Venables & R-something-or-the-other which covers all three dalects.
Whether that is the right starting point depends on whether you really
want to program or use existing applications.
The R FAQ (http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/) may be helpful.
--
Brian D. Ripley, ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272860 (secr)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595
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