S Programming: (Statistics and Computing)

S is a high-level language for manipulating, analysing and displayingdata. It forms the basis of two highly acclaimed and widely used dataanalysis software systems, the commercial S-PLUS and the OpenSource R. This book provides an in-depth guide to writing software inthe S language under either or both of those systems. It is intendedfor readers who have some acquaintance with the S language and want toknow how to use it more effectively, for example to build re-usabletools for streamlining routine data analysis or to implement newstatistical methods.One of the outstanding strengths of the S language is the ease withwhich it can be extended by users. S is a functional language, andfunctions written by users are first-class objects treated in the sameway as functions provided by the system. S code is eminently readableand so a good way to document precisely what algorithms were used, andas much of the implementations are themselves written in S, they can bestudied as models and to understand their subtleties. The currentimplementations also provide easy ways for S functions to callcompiled code written in C, Fortran and similar languages; this isdocumented here in depth.Increasingly S is being used for statistical or graphical analysiswithin larger software systems or for whole vertical-marketapplications. The interface facilities are most developed onWindows and these are covered with worked examples.The authors have written the widely used Modern Applied Statisticswith S-PLUS, now in its third edition, and several software librariesthat enhance S-PLUS and R; these and the examples used in both booksare available on the Internet.Dr. W.N. Venables is a senior Statistician with the CSIRO/CMISEnvironmetrics Project in Australia, having been at the Department ofStatistics, University of Adelaide for many years previously.Professor B.D. Ripley holds the Chair of Applied Statistics at theUniversity of Oxford, and is the author of four other books on spatialstatistics, simulation, pattern recognition and neural networks. Bothauthors are known and respected throughout the international S and Rcommunities, for their books, workshops, short courses, freelyavailable software and through their extensive contributions to theS-news and R mailing lists.

Table of Contents:
1 Introduction.- 2 The S Language: Syntax and Semantics.- 3 The S Language: Advanced Aspects.- 4 Classes.- 5 New-style Classes.- 6 Using Compiled Code.- 7 General Strategies and Extended Examples.- 8 S Software Development.- 9 Interfaces under Windows.- Appendices.- A Compiling and Loading Code.- A.1 Procedures with S-PLUS.- A.2 Procedures with R.- A.3 Common concerns.- A.4 Writing Dynamic Link Libraries for Windows.- B The Interactive Environment.- B.1 History and audit trails.- B.2 Options.- B.3 Session startup and finishing functions.- C BATCH Operation.- C.1 S-PLUS.- C.2 R.- References.

Review :
From the reviews: JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION "Let me come right to the point. If you use S at all – either through the S-PLUS commercial software package or its free open software variant, R – get this book. It is a superbly written, indispensable resource to the S language. Whether you merely dabble in S/R (or are contemplating such dabbling) or are a seasoned veteran who uses it extensively, you will find [this book] invaluable…I would be remiss if I did not pay homage to what I consider a most welcome feature of this book: the superb quality of the writing and the remarkable attention to detail by both authors and publisher. V&R write clearly and very concisely; they take great care to explain what needs to be explained, but they do not patronize the reader with trivialities; they use many well chosen examples and code snippets to support their expositions; and they organize and sequence topics logically, and extensively and liberally cross-reference them by page number to help the reader understand how they relate. Finally, V&R frequently take pains to point out lurking software traps and documentation inaccuracies that can plague users. I consider such conscious efforts to mitigate future aggravations for readers a thoughtful courtesy that more software documenters should emulate. I also would like to compliment the publishers on the superb typography and page layout that clearly distinguishes text, code, tables, section headings, and so forth. The editing is also remarkable: I noticed no errors at all! This level of attention to production detail makes the book very easy to either browse or study. I appreciated it very much. In many respects, [this book] could serve as a model for what ought to be the standard in software references. It strikes a careful and effective balance between providing a big picture of the overall language structure and the details necessary to fit the pieces together and make themwork…It is written with attention to style and clarity and produced to help the reader grasp the content as easily as possible. Such details matter, and it is a pleasure to give credit where credit is clearly due. S PROGRAMMING should be on every S/R user’s desk next to the computer, and maybe in every software documenter’s library as well."