[R] Is R really an open source S+ ?

[Rex_Bryan@urscorp.com]

 This is not a criticism.  I'm just curious.  Is there an effort to keep R
comparable to S+?
Or are the two languages diverging?  I am doing what probably legions have
done before me,
and legions will after me...using R on examples from text books written with
S+ code.  Most of the
time everything appears to be equivalent.  And then there are amazing
divergences in commands.  For
instance:
S:  stdev
R:  sd

why this difference?
Other examples...

S:  Bootstrap
R:  Boot

S:  Jackknife
R:  NA

S: T, F
R: TRUE, FALSE

For those who want to use open source R but still use the excellent S+
literature...these differences can be confusing.  I can also appreciate the
stress on authors attempting to express code that works in both languages.

REX