1. Introduction to a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. A tutorial by Eric Gilliland and Matt Pocernich March 29th, 2006

2. Origins of R ● Influenced by two existing languages: – Becker, Chambers & Wilks' S (ATT) – Sussman's Scheme ● Initially written by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman ● R-0.49 23-Apr-1997 05:53 959k ● R-latest 20-Dec-2005 02:35 13.0M

3. R is Open Source ! ● GNU General Public License (GPL) ● The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research. ● All code is visible

4. The R Community ● Developers – R Core Group (17 members, all -male?), only 2 have left since 1997 – Major update in April/October (freeze dates, beta versions, bug tracking,...) ● Mailing lists – Help list ~ 90 messages/day, archived, searchable. ● Packages – more than 600 packages (11/2005)

5. Packages ● More than 600 packages – Nearly every conceivable topic – Hard to search – Contributors include a who's who in statistics ● Task page – Bayesian Bayesian Inference – Cluster Cluster Analysis & Finite Mixture Models – Econometrics Computational Econometrics – Environmetrics Analysis of Ecological and Environmental Data – Finance Empirical Finance – Genetics Statistical Genetics – gR gRaphical models in R – MachineLearning Machine Learning & Statistical Learning – Multivariate Multivariate Statistics – SocialSciences Statistics for the Social Sciences – Spatial Analysis of Spatial Data

6. ● Contains everything – Source code – Documentation – Newsletter – Mailing list – Packages r-project.org

7. Miscelleneous ● Works on most platforms – Mac, Windows, Linux, Solaris,... ● Should be used with an editor – Windows version contains notebook – Xemacs – Winedt ● Works in BATCH Mode ● Rweb ● Ideal for use with cvs !!!

8. R Culture ● Try fortunes package