# About

## Introduction

R is a computer language not entirely unlike the S language developed at AT&T Bell Laboratories by Rick Becker, John Chambers and Allan Wilks. The two languages are implemented quite differently, but bear enough superficial resemblence that users should be able to switch between the two with relative ease. Currently the software is undergoing active development. Discussion of the development process is carried out on the "r-devel" mailing list. See the resources page for details on how to subscribe to this list.

We have implemented R in what we hope is a very portable fashion and in way which requires relatively little in the way of machine resources. Versions of the language exist for many Unix platforms including FreeBSD, NetBSD, Linux, Irix, Solarias and HPUX. In addition there are versions for Macintosh, Power Macintosh and Microsoft Windows (3.1, 95, NT).

## Present Status

The present version implements most of the functionality in the first S book (the "Blue Book") and many of the applications. In addition, we have implemented a certain amount of functionality from the second S book (the "White Book"). In particular we have a functioning versions of "lm" and "glm" and their associated "summary" and "anova" methods (it would be nice to have "drop1", "add1" and "step", but there hasn't been time to complete these yet). What we have in the way of manual is in the directory in an "output independent" form which can be used to create versions for HTML, LaTeX, troff etc.

Last modified: January 26, 1998 by Friedrich Leisch