S-PLUS is a commercial implementation of the S programming language sold by TIBCO Software Inc. It features object-oriented programming capabilities and advanced analytical algorithms. Its statistical analysis capabilities are commonly used by econometricians. The S-PLUS FinMetrics software package was developed for econometric time series analysis. Due to the increasing popularity of the open source S successor R, TIBCO Software released th
TIBCO Enterprise Runtime for R (TERR)
as an alternative R interpreter. It is available on

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

UNIX Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

operating systems.

Historical timeline

In 1988, S-PLUS was first developed and released by a Seattle-based start-up company called Statistical Sciences, Inc. The company's founder and sole owner is R. Douglas Martin, professor of statistics at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

, Seattle. Martin originally learned S while working at Bell Laboratories, where the S language was originally developed. At the time of its release, S-PLUS was one of the first examples of software that implemented algorithms for

generalized linear models In statistics, a generalized linear model (GLM) is a flexible generalization of ordinary linear regression. The GLM generalizes linear regression by allowing the linear model to be related to the response variable via a ''link function'' and by ...

, second to GLIM. Statistical Sciences acquires the exclusive license to distribute S and merged with MathSoft in 1993, becoming the firm's Data Analysis Products Division (DAPD). In 1995, S-PLUS 3.3 for

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...

/NT, with Matrix library, command history, and Trellis graphics. This was followed by the release of S-PLUS 3.4 for UNIX in 1996. This version included a non-linear mixed-effects modeling library, hexagonal binning, and cluster methods. S-PLUS 4 was released for Windows in 1997, with features such as an updated GUI, integration with Excel, and editable graphics. S-PLUS 4.5 for Windows in 1998, with

Scatterplot A scatter plot, also called a scatterplot, scatter graph, scatter chart, scattergram, or scatter diagram, is a type of plot or mathematical diagram using Cartesian coordinates to display values for typically two variables for a set of dat ...

brushing, and the ability to create S-PLUS graphs from within Excel &

SPSS SPSS Statistics is a statistical software suite developed by IBM for data management, advanced analytics, multivariate analysis, business intelligence, and criminal investigation. Long produced by SPSS Inc., it was acquired by IBM in 2009. Versi ...

. The software also became available for Linux &

Solaris Solaris is the Latin word for sun. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film * ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem ** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg ** ''Sol ...

. In 1999, S-PLUS 5 released for Solaris, Linux,

HP-UX HP-UX (from "Hewlett Packard Unix") is a proprietary software, proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise; current versions support HPE Integrity Servers, based on Intel's Itanium architect ...

AIX Aix or AIX may refer to: Computing * AIX, a line of IBM computer operating systems *Alternate index, for an IBM Virtual Storage Access Method key-sequenced data set * Athens Internet Exchange, a European Internet exchange point Places Belg ...

IRIX IRIX (, ) is a discontinued operating system developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) to run on the company's proprietary MIPS architecture, MIPS workstations and servers. It is based on UNIX System V with Berkeley Software Distribution, BSD extensio ...

, and

DEC Alpha Alpha (original name Alpha AXP) is a 64-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Alpha was designed to replace 32-bit VAX complex instruction set computers ( ...

. S-PLUS 2000 for Windows. 3.3,

quality control Quality control (QC) is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. ISO 9000 defines quality control as "a part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements". This approach plac ...

charting, new commands for data manipulation. This was followed by S-PLUS 6 for

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

Unix Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

in 2000. This version had a Java-based GUI, Graphlets, survival5, and missing data library In 2001, MathSoft sold its Cambridge-based Engineering and Education Products Division (EEPD), and was renamed Insightful Corporation, and moved headquarters to Seattle. This essentially reversed the previous merger between MathSoft and Statistical Sciences, Inc. S-PLUS Analytic Server 2.0. S-PLUS 6 was released for Windows in 2001. In 2002, StatServer 6 was released and the student edition of S-PLUS became free. S-PLUS 6.2 was released and ported to AIX. In 2004, Insightful purchased the S language from

Lucent Technologies Lucent Technologies, Inc. was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey. It was established on September 30, 1996, through the div ...

for $2 million, and released S+ArrayAnalyzer 2.0. S-PLUS 7.0 released in 2005. BigData library for working with larger-than-memory data sets, S-PLUS Workbench (

Eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event which occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ...

development tool). Insightful Miner 7.0 also released. In 2007, S-PLUS 8 released with a new package system, language extensions for R package compatibility, and workbench debugger. TIBCO acquired Insightful Corporation for $25 million in 2008.TIBCO Completes Acquisition of Insightful Corporation
press release, TIBCO Software Inc., September 3, 2008.

References

{{Statistical software Programming languages Proprietary commercial software for Linux Statistical software

Historical timeline

See also

References