[R] why "R"?

[Bill Venables]

>>>>> "Friedrich" == Friedrich Leisch
<Friedrich.Leisch at ci.tuwien.ac.at> writes: 

>>>>> On Sat, 20 Mar 1999 21:45:20 +0800,
>>>>> Jose Ramon G Albert (JRGA) wrote:

    JRGA> When I tell several people here in the Philippines
    JRGA> about the wonders of using R, one of the things I am
    JRGA> asked is why is it called "R"?  Does it have anything
    JRGA> to do with the fact that the original writers of the R
    JRGA> code were Robert Gentleman & Ross Ihaka?

    Friedrich> yes, and additionally it's the letter before S in
    Friedrich> the alphabet :-)

I have always taken the naming of R and S (and C for that matter)
to be one of those little mysteries best left unexplained.  It
invariably annoys students immensely when you tell them this!  I
have seen some explanations of how C got its name that have
always been extremely weak and unconvincing, which is probably
just a reinforcement of my contention.  The only really strong
opinion I have had from the originators is that "S" does NOT
stand for "Statistics" (presumably it is supposed to cover much
more...)

There is another system for data analysis and graphics called "R
code", by the way, which has nothing whatever to do with R.  I am
surprised that there has never been much confusion, although the
potential is certainly there.

Bill Venables.



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-- 
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Bill Venables, Department of Statistics,    Tel.: +61 8 8303 3026
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