Documentation

• 25: What documentation is there for S, S-PLUS?
• 26: What is the statlib server? How can I access it?
• 27: Are archives of the S-news digests available?

What documentation is available for S, S-PLUS?

• 25.1: Primary Books
• 25.2: S-PLUS Manuals
• 25.3: Online Documentation
• 25.4: Other Books

Primary Books

The primary references for S are two books by the creators of S.

• R.A. Becker, J.M. Chambers and A.R. Wilks (1988), "The New S Language," Chapman and Hall, London. This book is often called the "Blue book".
• J.M. Chambers and T.J. Hastie (1992), "Statistical Models in S," Chapman and Hall, London. This is also called the "White book".

Two somewhat dated books describing early versions of S are

• R. A. Becker and J. M. Chambers (1984), "S: An Interactive Environment for Data Analysis and Graphics," Chapman and Hall, London.
• R. A. Becker and J. M. Chambers (1985), "Extending the S System," Chapman and Hall, London.

S-PLUS Manuals

S-PLUS comes with its own extensive set of manuals. Note that due to nontrivial printing costs the Reference Manuals must currently be purchased separately.

• S-PLUS for UNIX 3.4 Documentation
  • A Crash Course in S-PLUS
  • A Gentle Introduction to S-PLUS
  • Read Me First
  • S-PLUS Global Index
  • S-PLUS Guide to Statistical and Mathematical Analysis
  • S-PLUS Installation and Maintenance Manual
  • S-PLUS Programmer's Manual
  • S-PLUS Trellis Graphics User's Manual
  • S-PLUS User's Manual
  • S-PLUS Version 3.4 Supplement
• S-PLUS for Windows Documentation
  • S-PLUS Guide to Statistics
  • S-PLUS Programmer's Guide
  • S-PLUS User's Guide

Online Documentation

S and S-PLUS both contain online documentation for all of their functions via the help() function. In the UNIX version of S-PLUS the help.start() function provides a convenient menu-driven help system, while in the Windows version help is provided through the Windows Help system.

Two guides to S-PLUS are available from the S directory of statlib (See section What is the statlib server? How can I access it?, for information on statlib), both of which contain much material useful to users of S of August 1991 or later versions.

The index entries are:

`sguide'

`sguide.ps1'

`sguide.ps2'

"Introductory Guide to S-PLUS". A beginners' guide to doing statistics in S-PLUS. SGuide is a shar archive of LaTeX source, styles, figures and data. SGuide.ps1 and SGuide.ps2 are PostScript full size and reduced 2-on-1 respectively. Archive ripley is also needed. Submitted by Brian Ripley (ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk)

`splusnotes'

Instructions for obtaining the LaTeX (and postscript) source, and associated data, for a short course on S-PLUS. The document talks mostly about plain S features and it does not concentrate on features specific to S-PLUS. Very useful as an introductory document. Supersedes snotes. Created by Bill Venables (venables@stats.adelaide.edu.au) and David Smith (D.M.Smith@lancaster.ac.uk). Using a Web browser, these notes also may be obtained from Lancaster University.

These are also available by anonymous ftp from markov.stats.ox.ac.uk [192.76.20.1] in directory pub/S (see the file README for current details) and on statlib. (See section What is the statlib server? How can I access it?, for information on statlib).

Other Books

Other books which discuss particular aspects of S and S-Plus include the following.

• A. Bruce and H.-Y. Gao (1996), "Applied Wavelet Analysis with S-PLUS," Springer-Verlag, New York.
• W. Cleveland (1993), "Visualizing Data," Hobart Press, Summit, NJ.
• B. Everitt (1994), "A Handbook of Statistical Analyses using S-PLUS," Chapman & Hall, London.
• W. H\"ardle (1991), "Smoothing Techniques with Implementation in S," Springer-Verlag, New York.
• S. Huet, A. Bouvier, M.-A. Gruet, and E. Joliet (1996), "Statistical Tools for Nonlinear Regression: A Practical Guide with S-PLUS Examples," Springer-Verlag, New York.
• A. Krause and M. Olson (1997), "The Basics of S and S-PLUS", Springer, New York.
• A. Marazzi (1992), "Algorithms, Routines and S Functions for Robust Statistics," Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.
• P. Spector (1994), "An Introduction to S and S-PLUS," Duxbury Press, Belmont, CA.
• W. N. Venables and B. D. Ripley (1997), "Modern Applied Statistics with S-PLUS," 2nd Ed., Springer, New York.

For readers of Japanese there are

• M. Sibuya and R. Shibata (1992), "Data Analysis by using S," Kyouritsu Syuppan, Japan.
• A 1991 translation of Becker, Chambers & Wilks (1988) by M. Sibuya and R. Shibata.
• A 1994 translation of Chambers and Hastie (1992) by R. Shibata.

For readers of German there is

• F. Boker (1997), "S-PLUS -- Learning by Doing: Eine Anleitung zum Arbeiten mit S-PLUS," Verlag Lucius & Lucius, ISBN 3-8282-0049-4.
• A. Krause (1997), "Einfuehrung in S und S-PLUS," Spring-Verlag, New York. ISBN 3-540-60932-6
• B. Suselbeck (1993), "S und S-PLUS: Eine Einfuhrung in Programmierung und Anwendung," Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jenna, New York. ISBN 3-437-40232-3.

What is the statlib server? How can I access it?

statlib is a system for distributing statistical software by electronic mail, ftp, and World Wide Web.

The easiest way to access statlib is using a Web browser (e.g. Mosaic) with a URL of http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/. If you are using a Web browser, you may access statlib by clicking here.

To access the statlib mail server, send a mail message to statlib@lib.stat.cmu.edu. For starters, send a message containing the following:

              send index
              send index from S

This will give you an index of the general and S-specific material available on the statlib server.

Remember that the server does not understand English or any other language. Your requests must be exactly in the form specified.

Anonymous ftp access is also available. Type ftp lib.stat.cmu.edu At the login prompt, type statlib (without the quotes) and give your e-mail address as the password.

A `mirror' of the statlib archive in the UK is available at unix.hensa.ac.uk. For details on the mail server, send email to netlib@unix.hensa.ac.uk with a body of send browser.

The site can also be accessed by telnet (log in as 'archive'), by anonymous ftp, or by WWW with the URL http://www.hensa.ac.uk/. The statlib archive is under /statlib. Using a Web browser, you may access this statlib mirror by clicking here.

Are archives of the S-news digests available?

Archives of the S-news digests are available at statlib, in the directory s-news, and these can be requested by e-mail or retrieved by ftp. There were 175 digests as of November, 1994.

You can search the digests by keyword. The format of the find command in an e-mail is:

find <digest_number> <keyword>[ <keyword>..] in s-news

For example, to search digest1 for the keywords `regression' and `transformation', mail the following to statlib:

find digest1 regression transformation in s-news

Note that the word "all" in place of <digest_number> will search all digests. The introductory message from statlib gives more details.

See section What is the statlib server? How can I access it?, for information on statlib.

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