[R-sig-finance] R vs. S-PLUS

[David Kane]

Gary Cable writes:
 > I recently joined Insightful Corporation as Product Manager for Financial
 > Solutions. I continue to hear a theme of R versus S and I find it somewhat
 > curious. 

The theme that I hear most often is R versus S+, both being
implementations of the S language.

 > it can also be a weakness because it (IMO) does not represent a
 > commercial tool that provides me with stability, product support,
 > and professional services.

During 2001, I used both R and S+ simultaneously for some relatively
serious work. I found R superior then in terms of stability and
product support. Others opinions may differ.

 > R is primarily an academic solution. 

This is your opinion. Billions of dollars in real assets around the
globe are run using R every day. Maybe those managers are all idiots,
but I doubt it.

 > Insightful owns the IP (the S Language) and is committed to its ongoing
 > improvement.

Does Insightful own the S language? I do not believe that this is true.

Dave Kane

PS. My purpose here is not to start a flame war. I can think of
reasons why someone in finance might prefer S+ to R --- easy data
retrieval from Factset and Bloomberg comes to mind. But there was no
way that I could let a claim about R being "primarily an academic
solution" go unchallenged.