Well, Rolf, I think you need to try harder to fathom. :-) This debate is
not new, but here are some of my current reasons to use S-Plus, both
idealogical and practical. (I do also use R).
1. Competition can be good.
2. S-plus has tools for connectivity to other software. For example,
opening Excel in S-Plus and calling S-Plus functions from Excel. Neither
feature is as easy in R.
3. S-Plus is part of StatServer, which is a nice system for
enterprise-wide statistical analyses and reports. Doing the same in R
requires expertise in some hodgepodge collection of things like SOAP,
PERL, etc.
4. Some organizations will only use software that can be purchased.
5. When I send email to R-devel, I cross my fingers that (a) Someone will
please answer and (b) I won't have my question (or myself) critiqued.
Insightful support is friendlier and always answers (admittedly, not
always with a solution).
6. I have filed fewer bug reports about S-Plus than I have about R.
7. S-Plus has some libraries that are not available in R. For example,
the robust library is nice and I think it is better than the robust
statistical methods in R.
8. Insightful is a channel for turning a few million dollars of research
grants into software that benefits us all.
Best,
Kevin Wright. S-Plus user 1994-2005. R User 2001-2005.
> I cannot for the life of me fathom why ***anyone*** would use SPLUS
> anymore. No one that I know does so. All use R. The only problem
> that ever arises is of the nature of ``Whoops! I have this data set
> stored as an SPLUS object, and I can't get at it. And none of my
> mates can help me out because none of them has access to SPLUS
> either.''
>
> This problem is decaying exponentially however.
>
> cheers,
>
> Rolf Turner
> rolf@math.unb.ca
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