S (programming language)
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{{ infobox programming language
| name = S
| logo =
| paradigm =
| year = 1975–1976
| designer =
| developer = [[Rick Becker]], [[Allan Wilks]], [[John Chambers (programmer)|John Chambers]]
| latest_release_version =
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| typing =
| implementations = [[R (programming language)|R]], [[S-PLUS]]
| dialects =
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'''S''' is a statistical [[programming language]] developed primarily by [[John Chambers (programmer)|John Chambers]] and (in earlier versions) [[Rick Becker]] and [[Allan Wilks]] of [[Bell Labs|Bell Laboratories]]. The aim of the language, as expressed by John Chambers, is "to turn ideas into software, quickly and faithfully".
There are two modern implementations of S; a free implementation, [[R (programming language)|R]], and a commercial implementation, Insightful's [[S-PLUS]]. Version 4 of S, often abbreviated S4, provides advanced object-oriented features. S4 classes differ markedly from S3 classes.
==History==
==="Old S"===
S is one of several statistical computing languages that were designed at Bell Laboratories, and first took form between 1975–1976. Up to this date, much of the statistical computing was done by directly calling [[Fortran]] subroutines; however, S was designed to offer an alternate and more interactive approach. Early design decisions that hold to today include interactive graphics devices (printers and character terminals at the time), and providing easily accessible documentation for the functions.
The first working version of S was built in [[1976]], and operated on the [[General Comprehensive Operating System|GCOS]] operating system. At this time, S was unnamed, and suggestions included ''Interactive SCS (ISCS)'', ''Statistical Computing System'', and ''Statistical Analysis System'' (which was already taken: see [[SAS System]]). The name ''''S'''' (used with single quotation marks, until 1979) was chosen, as it has the common letter used in statistical computing, and is consistent with other programming languages designed from the same institution at the time (namely the [[C (programming language)|C programming language]]).
When [[UNIX/32V]] was ported to the (then new) 32-bit [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] [[VAX]], computing on the [[Unix]] platform became feasible for S. In late 1979, S was ported from GCOS to UNIX, which would become the new primary platform.
In 1980, the first version of S distributed outside of Bell Laboratories, and in 1981, source version were made available. In 1984 two books were published by the research team at Bell Laboratories: ''S: An Interactive Environment for Data Analysis and Graphics''<ref>{{cite book |last=Becker |first=R.A. |coauthors=Chambers, J.M. |title=S: An Interactive Environment for Data Analysis and Graphics |year=1984 |publisher=Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole |location=Pacific Grove, CA, USA |isbn=053403313X }}</ref> (1984 Brown Book) and ''Extending the S System''<ref>{{cite book |last=Becker |first=R.A. |coauthors=Chambers, J.M. |title=Extending the S System |year=1985 |publisher=Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole |location=Pacific Grove, CA, USA |isbn=0534050166 }}</ref>. Also, in 1984 the source code for S became licensed through AT&T Software Sales for education and commercial purposes.
==="New S"===
By 1988, many changes were made to S and the syntax of the language. ''The New S Language''<ref>{{cite book |last=Becker |first=R.A. |authorlink= |coauthors= Chambers, J.M., and Wilks, A.R. |title=The New S Language: A Programming Environment for Data Analysis and Graphics |year=1988 |publisher=Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole |location=Pacific Grove, CA, USA |isbn=053409192X }}</ref> (1988 Blue Book) was published to introduce the new features, such as the transition from ''macros'' to ''functions'' and how functions can be passed to other functions (such as <code>apply</code>). Many other changes to the S language were to extend the concept of "objects", and to make the syntax more consistent (and strict). However, many users found the transition to ''New S'' difficult, since their macros needed to be rewritten. Many other changes to S took hold, such as the use of [[X Window System|X11]] and [[PostScript]] graphics devices, rewriting many internal function from Fortran to C, and the use of [[double precision]] (only) arithmetic. The ''New S'' language is very similar to that used in modern version of S-PLUS and R.
In 1991, ''Statistical Models in S''<ref>{{cite book |last=Chambers |first=J.M. |coauthors=Hastie, T.J. |title=Statistical Models in S |year=1991 |publisher=Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole |location=Pacific Grove, CA, USA |isbn=0412052911 |pages=pp. 624}}</ref> (1991 White Book) was published, which introduced the use of formula-notation<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wilkinsons |first=G.N. |coauthors=Rogers, C.E. |year=1973 |title=Symbolic description of factorial models for analysis of variance |journal=Applied Statistics |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=392–399 |accessdate=2007-02-20 |doi=10.2307/2346786 }}</ref> (which use the '<tt>~</tt>' operator), data frame objects, and modifications to the use of object [[Method (computer science)|methods]] and [[Class (computer science)|classes]].
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==References==
<references/>
==See also==
* [[R (programming language)|The R programming language]]
==External links==
*[http://www.r-project.org/ The R programming language], - Open Source implementation of S
*[http://cm.bell-labs.com/stat/doc/94.11.ps A Brief History of S], by Richard A. Becker (in [[PostScript]] format)
*[http://cm.bell-labs.com/stat/doc/96.7.ps Evolution of the S Language], by John M. Chambers, discusses the new features in Version 4 of S (in [[PostScript]] format)
*[http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/ms/departments/sia/S/history.html Stages in the Evolution of S], by John M. Chambers
[[Category:Statistical programming languages]]
[[ko:S (프로그래밍 언어)]]
[[ja:S言語]]
[[su:S (basa pamrograman)]]