S Programming

From the reviews: <p>JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION <p>"Let me come right to the point. If you use S at all a" either through the S-PLUS commercial software package or its free open software variant, R a" 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] invaluablea ]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 them worka ]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 usera (TM)s desk next to the computer, and maybe in every software documentera (TM)s library as well."

(Bookdata)

Preface; Typographical Conventions; Introduction; The S Language: Syntax and Semantics; The S Language: Advanced Aspects; Classes; New-style Classes; Using Compiled Code; General Strategies and Extended Examples; S Software Development; Interfaces Under Windows; Appendices: Compiling and Loading Code. The Interactive Environment. BATCH Operation; References; Index.

(Whitaker)